I started this post on Friday with this draft paragraph:

I’ve been planning to write a commemorative post especially for today, which marks one and a half years since my brother died. Oddly enough, the sun rose this morning and the doldrums that often hit me on the 23rd didn’t accompany it. It could have something to do with the flurry of wonderful news that we’ve received this week (hubby is supposed to be en route home!), and it certainly doesn’t mean that I’ve “gotten over” Nathan being gone. I’m learning to cope, yes, but that doesn’t explain it fully. Perhaps living in the moment is a better way to describe it. It doesn’t do my stress level any good to dwell on the past.

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How ironic that I ended Friday’s draft with a comment about living in the moment. I was stuck on the idea that – for a pleasant change – I wasn’t feeling melancholy on the 23rd. I didn’t have time to write any more before work, so I saved the first paragraph as a draft. Some friends and I were going out to a birthday lunch, so I didn’t expect to have another chance to write until Friday evening. Lunch was nice; celebrating with friends is a good thing, indeed.

Then, something completely amazing and fabulous happened … my phone rang while we were at the restaurant. It was my hubby, using his calling card to tell me that his flight connected in DFW. Cool, I thought – he’s actually in the States! I officially got my hopes up that he wouldn’t be re-deployed to the farthest reaches of the Earth. THEN, he said that it got better … they canceled his connecting flight, so he *had* to stay overnight at a hotel. Say again, over?! I was all smiles and bouncing in my seat, trying to figure out quickly how to arrange care for the boys that evening so that I could skip town while the girls at lunch picked on me for not leaving right then.

Thankfully, my mom and a friend stepped up and worked out the details. I emailed my boss to let him know what was going on, and I ran home to pack a bag and hit the highway. I was already 30 min north of town when hubby called back to tell me which hotel to meet him. What an exciting, whirlwind evening!

It struck me later in the weekend that on a day that could have been depressing and reflective, it ended up being the best Friday in recent memory. What joy to see my hubby on an unexpected layover, and so exciting to realize that he’s actually on the way home – sooner than expected, to boot!

I feel so thankful, grateful and blessed right now. The boys have been wild children all weekend, and it hasn’t been a walk in the park, to say the least. (In fact, I tried taking them to the park earlier to run off their abundant energy, and it rained on us.) All things considered, I have learned to have a clearer perspective on these stressful “moments” in life and reassure myself that this, too, shall pass. All days won’t be as crazy and unruly as this weekend. There are days when the boys actually get along and behave – really, there are! When my own mindset is focused on the blessings rather than the frustrations, I’m better able to deal with the challenges. (That isn’t to say that I’m always successful, but I try.)