In a lot of ways, it has been a very long three months. I have grown a lot and I have learned a lot. Chris and I have faced a lot together in those three months and our relationship is decades older because of the experience we have shared. I stop to look back and I have no idea how we have managed to survive these last ninety days - and some days, that was all we have managed to do...to simply survive. We have reached that point where it is rare for anyone else to ask how we're doing and we are fully recognizing the incredible support we are blessed with in one another. Gradually, there have been more days where the pain and the grief serve as more of a backdrop rather than taking center stage. In that respect, it has been a long three months.
At the very same time, those three months often feel like the blink of an eye. I recall every moment of his delivery so vividly that it feels like it happened yesterday. I still have moments where I can almost feel him kicking me. There are flashes every once in a while of what it would be like if our nighttime hugs included all three of my children. There are times when the pain is so fresh and the need to feel him in my arms is so real that it is almost crushing me. That is when those three months feel like a single breath.
I need you to understand that I am not the same person I used to be...I will never be her again. I need you to realize that you are not always going to find the logic in what I say or what I do. I need you to meet me where I am and allow me to be who I have to be right now to make it to the end of each day.
To you, it may only be three months (or six months or ten years) but for me - it is both a moment and a lifetime. There will be times when I will feel the devastation throbbing like a brand new wound and there will be times when I can run my fingers over the scar in my soul without wincing. There is no rhyme or reason to how I feel at any given moment and I am slowly learning to embrace whatever comes because that is really the only option I've been given.
All I ask is that you remember that no matter where you think I should be or how you think I should behave, it isn't up to you. It just isn't.
