Memories

It is amazing how quickly life flies by. Today, on Facebook, I stumbled upon these pictures from 2012. This would have been fall of 2012. Here's why I loved these pictures.

 

This was a very happy time of my life. I was not starting infertility treatments for our final IVF transfer. Once that starts, I am about to go through the hardest year of my life. Life was so slow. So beautiful. Here were some of the things that made me happy back then:

Look at those little girl shoes! After two sons, I had a daughter. I used to love these shoes. I loved that she loved them. I loved having a daughter.

Oh this picture. For so many reasons I LOVE this picture. I love little Abigail wearing her bathing suit. That's actually another bathing suit next to her. I loved this little hallway in our Azorean house.

Such a beautiful island. Such peace. John was home at such great hours. So much great family time. Young JB with his buddy Isaac. I loved Isaac's little voice. I loved our home there.

This picture .... I love my two little Irish twins. I also loved this Clifford costume. Isaac had worn it the year before in Turkey as a loaner from our neighbors. Now in the Azores, he wanted to wear that same costume. So I emailed my friend, and she gave it to us. Mailed it to us! That's military friends for you. Isaac was SO happy to get to be Clifford again.

And his little sister was so excited to see the costume!

This is the Wendi I am inside myself. She is young and skinny and not sick. I feel like, in sort of a depressing way, I started aging after this photo. I don't mean that in a negative way. I was just still so young here. We loved this time and that island. And that dog. I know with aging comes wisdom. And I wouldn't change that of course. But seeing this evokes something in me I can't quite put my finger on.

These flowers were called "Girls going to School." (That was the English translation.) They came out in bright pink right about the time that school started. This was our garden in Portugal. We loved this place. Man. What a beautiful place. But, in all the pictures, there is no rain. That didn't happen often.

There was only ONE stoplight on the island. There was NO traffic. UNLESS .... cows were being moved from place to place. This would happen frequently. Often once a week. I remember, we picked John's parents up from the airport and they said, "Look kids! Cows!" My parents looked at them like they were loco. Of course there were cows. The island had more cows than people.

Oh this dog. What a guy. He was so healthy here and full of life. Such a piece of work. I loved him so much. I also love that his lip is curled up in the picture. That would happen now and then and always made us laugh.