This post was also featured in the Huffington Post.

Dear kids,

I was just flipping through the pictures on my iPhone and gasped when I saw this one.

I couldn’t place it at first.

But I could tell one of you took it.

The angle is low, and I remembering one of you playing with my phone while I was making dinner the other night.

My first instinct was to dislike this image. Our kitchen looks cluttered and my butt looks big.

But, my dear sweet children, I don’t dislike it.

Not even one bit.

The truth is, I love everything about this photo.

And I hope you remember us like this.

It’d been a rough day for both Dad and I. He’d been dealing with a difficult new client at work, and I’d had a long day caring for you guys. Nothing exceptionally awful had happened in either of our days. They were just long and tiring, in the totally usual kind of way.

After spending 10 hours in our 2 totally different worlds, dealing with stressful deadlines and dirty diapers, we met in the kitchen. I had fajitas on my hands and he had snot on his work pants from when you embraced him upon his arrival home. You’d finished your dinners and had left us alone in the kitchen while you played trucks in the living room.

Both of us were out of words. Both of us were drained. Both of us were tired.

And without speaking, our arms locked in a tight hug in the middle of our kitchen. Our bodies were still and intertwined. We held tight because we each needed the other. In every single way.

And in that moment, one of you must have snapped this photo.

Kids, with all of my being, I hope you remember us like this.

United in love, even though we fight and bicker and argue.

I hope you remember us like this.

Standing together, no matter how many times we stand apart (on preschool preferences, bedtime routines and errant wet towels).

I hope you remember us like this.

Loving each other, even when it’s hard and sticky and not convenient and not fun.

I hope you remember us like this.

Because your parents love each other, and we will never stop.