Welcome Home

Well, I figure that I should probably blog our deployment reunion before we send Bill off on his remote or we may confuse people. Bill went to Iraq for two months this fall with his squadron. We were quite fortunate that he was able to return just before Thanksgiving and that we had the whole holiday season together as a family before he had to report to Korea. I had this grand and glorious vision of a picture perfect reunion. That was SO not what happened. A week and a half before Bill returned home I drove to Florida to see my parents and grandparents, because I wasn't sure when I was going to see them again. When I got word that Bill was on the way back to the states, I loaded up the kids, the dog, and the car and headed back to South Carolina. I returned home to a broken refrigerator and freezer and spoiled, yet fortunately not stinky, food.
I woke up to Bill's phone call at 5 saying he was back in the states and that his flight would be arriving around 11:00, six or seven hours earlier than expected! Too excited to sleep, I started getting the house ready and daydreamed about our long awaited reunion over a hot cup of coffee. I had it all planned out! A couple of hours later I get a message on my cell phone that Bill's flight was delayed due to a mechanical issue and they were awaiting a part which would be arriving on another plane sometime later in the day. Bill didn't know when he would be getting in. To make matters worse, Cingular screwed up and Bill's cell phone wasn't working and there was nothing they could do to fix it that day. Leaving us with no way to communicate regarding his arrival. GRRRR!!!
Meanwhile, I called the repair guy and got that scheduled. Around 1:30 or 2:00 I get a call from Bill saying he is at the Columbia airport and could I come pick him up. That was an hour away and the repair man was at my house fixing the fridge and the kids and I weren't even ready for the day. Yikes! SO not what I was daydreaming about. I got the kids ready and hung the sign that was supposed to be held by us at the airport when he came through the gate on our garage door, paid the repair man, jumped in the shower, and drove (probably a shade too fast) to the airport to pick him up.

We were so excited to see each other! Ryan couldn't take his eyes off of his daddy and Kaity wouldn't let him put her down. He carried both kids all the way to the car. Even after the three day journey home from the desert, Bill was beaming. Exhausted, but beaming. There have only been a few times I have ever seen him so happy, and those had to do with marriage and babies! So, even though the reunion was not ANYTHING like I had envisioned, it was so incredible to actually be reunited that no one even really cared (except me maybe just a tad) and we had a very quiet and extremely enjoyable Thanksgiving where we were especially thankful for the opportunity to be together as a family. It was a blissful reunion, that fortunately went so very smoothly and didn't have any of the hiccups we were told to expect. Another thing to praise God for! Such HAPPY guys!

We are so thankful to have had a wonderful opportunity to spend the past eight weeks as a family and have had a lot of fun and have spent a lot of great quality time together. These are the times that make being apart bearable. Knowing that we be reunited and that the time apart will make us not only a stronger family, but also a family more appreciative of the time they have been given to enjoy together.