Countdown

Let the countdown begin......Not sure which date we're counting down TO, but it will be within the next few weeks. 

THE SOLDIER WILL BE HOME!!!!!!!

I've come to realize in these last weeks just exactly what that means...The entire time he has been gone has sort of been like a dream.  I tried not to dwell on the fact that he was that far away and I couldn't get to him or him to me.  Now, that his time there is almost over the relief is sweeping through my soul.  I become teary-eyed at anything the least bit patriotic.  (Guess I'll have to be committed on Memorial Day.)  My energy is renewed and at the same time, I become weak as the pent-up stress is leaving me little by little. 

Many unexpected turns have been taken in our lives and in the future as we look back on them, they will be labeled by "that happened the year Joseph was in Iraq."  You know....kind of like we say "Oh, yeah, THAT happened the year I graduated or the year I got married, etc., etc., etc.  Not that nothing else of importance has happened during this time.....that just seems to be the one thing that we will measure the happenings of this year by.

This "year that Joseph was in Iraq" has been the ultimate challenge in parenthood.  Waiting, wondering about him....some endings and new beginnings with the others....a birth, a miscarriage....3 of us moved in the same week (oh,yeah, Joseph, we'll send you the forwarding address so you can find us).....tonsillectomy, mononucleosis, etc....but I'm still here and waiting to see what will transpire after the "year that Joseph was in Iraq."

Meantime, we are all excited about seeing our son, brother, uncle, grandson, and friend.  He's excited about seeing us, too.  He did tell me today that leaving from there is "almost like leaving home."  I get that....

He was home for Thanksgiving and we took him to the airport in Atlanta for his return flight.  It was a long, but interesting day and I was looking forward to going back, again, to pick him up......UNTIL Anna reminded me that he's not coming back to Atlanta.  Good thing I wasn't going alone or I'd have had a REAL interesting day in Atlanta......by myself.

We'll cherish our time together and be a family, again, for awhile.  We'll eat and laugh and get mad with each other and do all the "family" stuff while Joseph is home from "his year in Iraq."

May God bless and comfort the families of the service men and women who didn't make it home and may we never forget their sacrifice.....