This weekend is the first time that Tara and I have been away from each other since before all of this started. It is not much different than me being at work all day during the week. The only difference is the few hours at the end when I usually come home. I forget how much I love that time. Just hearing the screams of “Daddy’s is home!” when I walk in the door. And “fighting off” those hoards to get to my wife to give her a kiss. Any more I have to go find the oldest 2 girls to say hello. Their enthusiasm to see me is still there (at least that is what I tell myself), they just don’t compete with their siblings for the attention. Being away makes me appreciate how much I love being with my family.

Friday’s appointment went as expected. Tara is officially done with round one of chemotherapy. The plan is to do a scan and blood work in one month. Between now and then, nothing. While Tara has felt pretty good over the last several weeks, I think she will quickly realize that “pretty good” was relative to the 5 months before. We expect that she will have a renewed vigor that she hasn’t felt since before all of this started.

I pray that this next phase is a time that we can continue to trust in God. This may be even harder for me, I am not sure. To not be “doing” anything for the cancer may be scary. But the fact that Tara will be feeling much better will likely outweigh all of that.

Life will be more like it was before all of this started, only way different.