After three years of preparation I feel that this week is the test.  This week marks the first longer trip of many.

Josh and his brother, Ben, are headed to Nashville to song write for their first full length album as Citizen Way.  A glimpse into the project, their first hit single, Should’ve Been Me, will be on the album as well as a good handful of other songs they already have ready to go and this week long song writing experience will essentially fill the gaps.  Word in the band is that the album will be coming out in the spring so yay for that!

Even though I’m now realistically and fully aware of what it takes to be a musician’s wife, and I’ve been conditioned for over three years, there is something about this week, this sort of milestone marker week, that leaves me a little anxious.  Perhaps I’m expecting to be incredibly lonely.  For some reason it seems that just two more days of him being gone make the house seem that much emptier.  Or perhaps it’s because I’m too well aware that this is just the beginning of a couple years of hard work – the love of my life will be putting in some long stints on the road until the initial grunt work is done.  Either way, there’s something in me that knows that this week will show my true colors and really test how capable I am at running a household on my own while working very full time, taking care of two dogs, and remaining sane in one very quiet house.

All of this coming from a girl who was bent on a single life working for some magazine that allowed for traveling to exotic locations on assignment seems arbitrary.  I should be cut out for this right?  But there really was a major shift in me when I met Josh.  Suddenly only the more important things in life mattered:  love and family.  And I am so grateful that he showed me how to really love and how to be loved.  I’m grateful that even though he is not with me at home that I know wholeheartedly that I am his treasure on earth.  And I’m most grateful that I hold him as my treasure and passion on this earth.

Marriage really is a gift from God.  I love watching how is stretches and grows both of us into better lovers, givers, and movers for God.  I love the challenge of working through disagreements and I love most that there are so many more moments of intense joy and peace when I’m with him.  For those of you who have found the one God chose for you to love and do life with I am so truly overjoyed for you!  For those of you that haven’t, please, please, please be patient and wait for the right someone because the blessings that come from that incredible gift are heavenly.