Shoulder to Shoulder

I need Forest. I am not complete without him. But I have had to learn to be okay without him the past year and a half as work has required him to travel to Taiwan every other month. Those trips, combined with a smattering of work trips to Silicon Valley, has made his absence rather prominent. Back in May, not long after another Taiwan trip, Forest had surgery on his left shoulder which ended up having a more challenging recovery than anticipated. With post-surgery restrictions limiting the use of his left arm, I was left with all the lifting, child carrying, and lawn mowing that needed to be done. More than ever, I was learning to survive without his help. 

Although it was not fun, I'm sure it made us stronger somehow.

Here is Forest on the day of his surgery, by the time his drugs were wearing off: 

And here we are a couple of days later on our 11th anniversary, trying to soak in some peace from the temple grounds after a particularly rough day:

Eleven years of marriage has taught us a lot. One thing Forest has learned is the benefit of supplying his wife with consolation chocolate to help make life a little sweeter. Here is my favorite variety of chocolate he almost never fails to bring back from Taiwan:

And this is a bag of chocolate I must have earned one week when I was looking more defeated than usual:

Now that his shoulder is mostly healed, I have felt some of the burden lift off of mine. But I hope Forest still keeps buying me chocolate, anyway.