There were tears on Madalyn's part when Robert left for work tonight.

He got home late last night because he had court this morning. Then his dad was receiving a service award tonight and Robert stayed to go to the ceremony. He came back afterward to get his things and leave. It was late and the kids had already been put to bed but heard him and got up again. As he was saying goodbye to Madalyn she started to cry. He let both kids get up and follow him around while he got the rest of his stuff together. They walked him to the door, said goodbye and gave hugs again, watched him walk to the car....and then ran out the door to hug him some more and wave as he backed down the driveway. As I tucked them into bed a second time, she cried a little more.

It has been a while since there were tears from either one when their daddy left. They're mostly used to it; or, at least, that's been my perception. Perhaps they aren't quite as at peace with it as I've been thinking. I think Madalyn was tired; she'd cried two times already today over other things. I'm sure that put her in a sensitive state of mind and weakened her ability to deal with his leaving as well as she usually does. Additionally I think maybe having him come home midweek, for such a short amount of time, disrupted the schedule to which they are accustomed and made his leaving tougher. Usually when he comes home he's here for the next three days.

Whatever the reason, it drives home to me, once again, that this (Robert's job situation) was just a temporary solution to one set of problems, and brought with it an entirely different set of issues. I distracted Madalyn by talking about all the fun stuff we'll be doing in the next month or two, focusing especially on the State Fair. Once we got to talking about rides, she cheered up. But it was just a Band-Aid, and Band-Aids only hold for so long. We really need for Robert to find a comparable job here so he can be home every day as he used to be. Our prayers are that it will happen before the year is out.