35 days.
That is the amount of time my girls will be apart from their dad this summer and unable to physically participate in their nightly routine of reading books, brushing teeth and songs.
Due to logistics of closing on our house in Michigan, our cross country move, a long awaited parents only trip to paradise, we made the difficult decision to leave our girls with their grandparents in Indiana while we get settled in Florida.
I will fly back to be with them for most of that time. But dad will stay in Florida until we are able to bring the girls home after our trip.
35 days.
I know thinking about the time away from them breaks his dad heart.
It has been our dream for sometime to live in the sunshine state, so the end result will be glorious.
But 35 days is a long time.
Especially because since the beginning of the pandemic, their dad has worked from our basement.
Missing nothing of our day to day life.
For every blowout diaper, I had an extra set of adult hands to help.
We ate lunches and snacks together.
He witnessed our youngest take her first steps, a milestone he missed with our first because he was in the office.
He has been able to take our oldest to preschool at least once a week.
It hasn’t been without challenges, but it has been overwhelmingly good for our family to have dad home with us.
We have spent much time thinking about how we can make those 35 days easier for him and for them.
So when we were gifted a keepsake e-book from Make Momentos we knew this would be a wonderful way for our girls to stay connected to their dad and keep reading time part of their nightly routine.
He was able to pick a book with our girls from their extensive library. They loved seeing all the books that their dad could read to them. In fact, their wish list of e-books is about 6 or 7 titles long.
Each night the girls repeat an affirmation and included in it is the line “I am brave,” so naturally they all agreed on a book entitled “Brave.”
Dad recorded their book and it now exists in digital form. It is ready for our littles to listen to anytime they want. Their dad will be able to read to them any time anywhere. He can remain a part of their nightly routine despite the hundreds of miles between them.
And what a sweet gift for me as the mom, a tangible way for my three favorite people to remain connected despite the time and space between them.
What a blessing for our family.
Make Momentos states that their goal is to connect families in a day and age when everyone is already so busy and far apart. And for us, they have done just that. They’ve given us peace of mind that while dad is away, he will never be far from their hearts.
