Last year on this date, Travis and I locked eyes over our daughter’s bed in the hospital, tears filling both sets. I count it as one of the most intimate moments in our marriage, and probably always will. We shared the pain of our daughter’s struggle, and through it, we are stronger as a couple. It’s only by God’s mercy that the past year brought us closer together instead of ripping us apart.

I find it interesting that our English language has the same spelling for two very different words: tear (as in, the salty droplet from your eye) and tear (to rip). I tried looking to see if they came from the same source but they don’t. Scholars who know more than me could probably trace where these two different words came together in the same spelling with different pronunciations. But somehow the tears we shed kept us from being torn apart. And in that, the two words make sense to me.