I mainly went to three guys about this. Josh Bailey, who is a former colleague of mine at WCS, Preston Hill, who is my future father-in-law/former work colleague/missionary friend, and Tim Lankford, who is my cousin.
All three of them gave the same piece of advice almost immediately after I approached them about this.
That advice was "It's usually easy to fall in love with the woman's kids. Make sure that you are also falling in love with their mother and put her first. This will say a lot to the girls about what your intentions are and while it's ok to fall in love with them, make sure you fall in love with her first. The kids eventually leave, but you stay with their mom for the rest of your life."
I am very thankful that I chose all three of these guys about that because they were all absolutely right. Let me first say that I do sincerely love both Audrey and Addison. They are almost polar opposites from each other because 1. There is never a dull moment when they are together. and 2. It has shown me that I can love 2 daughters in two completely different ways, this is something that I didn't really think/know was possible.
With that being said, their mom wins. I said it when I first started dating her and I'm sticking to this: Ashley is the most incredible woman that I have ever met. Her life story is one that is loaded with tear joking moments and old country women saying "bless your heart"but if you were to meet her, you would have no idea that that was the case. She somehow finds joy in every moment without sugarcoating anything. She says things like they are, both positive and negative. She is my biggest fan and I am hers. We don't do well at all being away from each other for more than 24 hours and we find entertainment in everything we do from watching a movie to grocery shopping to talking while we fold clothes. I am about to be stuck with her for the rest of my life... and I want it that way because I love her more than anyone else.
However, I am now going through something that I have never gone through before and that is missing my little girls. Audrey and Addison left Huntsville this past Sunday with their grandparents to go to their place in southwest Houston. This past Wednesday, Ashley's best friend. Whitney, picked them up and they are staying with her for about a week and a half.
I must say that spending some one on one time with Ashley has been great and much needed since it's something that we don't get to do all that often, but we both agreed last night that we really miss them. We know they're having a blast at their Nana's (Whitney) but we are excited to have them home even though that won't be for another week. We miss their creativity and their laughs. We miss tucking them in at night, we miss high-lows with them and watching movies with them.
I guess it's cool that they are away from us now because they're sorta stuck with us once the school year starts. I'm excited for that to happen, but I'm more excited about just seeing them again.
