In September Monica and I got married. It was small, but beautiful ceremony. Sebastian and Emerson were my groomsman. Monica's sister and Alana were Mon's bridesmaids and Cherry was our flower girl. She walked down the aisle with Alana behind her guiding her to her place and instructing her on when to throw her flowers.

"Do you Remington Leith Kropp take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold? To love, honor and cherish, in sickness and in health, in wealth and in poverty, for better or worse?" I didn't hesitate.

"I do."

"And do you, Monica(I don't know her middle name) Ollander, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold? To love, honor and cherish, in sickness and in health, in wealth and in poverty, for better or worse?"

"I do." And in that moment I realized my life was full of possibilities and I would get to experience them with my wife and my daughters and nothing could make me happier.

We danced and drank and sang and kissed when the crowd wanted us to. We were happy. We spent that night at home, but the next morning we left for our honey moon. Two weeks. Cherry and Alana would stay with Mom until we came back. That week was hard for both girls, but we FaceTimed everyday and I told Alana to text me if she needed anything. Even if she just wanted to talk.

We went to Paris for our honeymoon. We went sightseeing and ate amazing food and slept in the plushest bed I'd ever slept on. I had no worries. Our girls were safe at home with Mom and we wouldn't start tour again until the new year.

While we were on our honey I wrote a poem. An insignificant detail to remember to some. But this poem was special. It was for Cherry. And Alana. As I would come to learn shortly after getting back from our honeymoon Cherry turned Alana into a Stargazer. They would sit up for hours each night looking at the stars, making their own constellations and finding the ones they knew.

Keep your chin up Stargazers.

At worlds above our own,

You are small, but you are stardust

And that's worth more than you have known.

For every sun and solar flare

Is made up just like you,

And if they are cause for wonder

Then I promise you are too.

Look out little Stargazers

Until nothing's left unseen

And know there's not a patch of sky

Where no one else's eyes have been.

That the darkness that enfolds you

Holds countless other starlit hearts

And with this you stand together

Though you live lifetimes apart.

Be brave now little Stargazers

The sky is growing light

And courage wanes like moonbeams

When it's pulled out from it's night,

But those who gazed before you

Know when your heart is full of fear

That it is always in your darkness

That the stars start to appear.

Years later I would catch them whispering it together while staring at the stars. I would spend the next seven years sending them back to their beds on school nights and sitting with them on weekends reciting the poem for them and singing when they me too. I would sing for them forever if they asked me too. If we're being completely honest there's nothing I wouldn't do for my little Stargazers. Each and every one of them.

This will make more sense when you read the epilogue.

Avery L.