A Family Dedication

This blog is dedicated to Our Family, The Graves'!

Most importantly, this is also a personal dedication to my husband and my children, as I will probably be doing most of the blog postings while my husband is away. I would like to give my husband an easy and fun way to keep up on family pictures and videos during these next many difficult months. I want Daddy Justin to know just how much he is loved and missed.

We've been together since May 26, 2003 and married May 21, 2005 and let me tell you, it has been a long five and a half years!!! I think we've been through more than the average 26 and 28 year old, some of it we brought on ourselves and onto each other and some has just been unfortunate and unfortelling circumstances that could not be avoided. Somehow though, we've weathered the storms and through it all, managed to hang on to each other.

Even during the most devastating months of our lives when we didn't know if I would survive, and more importantly, if our first born would survive a pregnancy cut three and a half months short,

somehow we not only pulled together and did survive but we triumphed as a family of 3 and recently were lucky enough to add another little boy to make us a happy, little family of four!

Our lives have undoubtedly changed in ways I could have never imagined and continue to surprise me almost on a daily basis. No doubt, the last two years since Lil' Justin's unexpected and extremely early arrival, our lives have really been turned upside down and we've had to make some major changes. The biggest of those changes has been your enlistment into the United States Army just one year ago on January 4, 2008, finding out I was pregnant for the 2nd time just a week after your departure to BCT and now, your current deployment into a dangerous other world, taking you so far from me, from our home, and from our two precious boys....

Needless to say, the last five years have truly been a non-stop roller coaster, never knowing what was going to be coming at us next. And yet, through it all, we're still here, alive, standing on two feet, raising two wonderful children and still hanging onto each other. So, this is to you, this is to me. This is to our our boys...to our beautiful family. You may be a half a world away but You remain in our hearts everyday! Just make sure You come back to Us as We will always be awaiting your return...