Waiting...

...and waiting... and waiting. So it's that time, it has been a year. 52 weeks. 365 days and counting... My dear husband has completed his second deployment to Iraq, served our country well, is ready to return home but all we can do is wait. He is waiting, we are waiting. We've been waiting since the beginning of the week when he took his aircraft to port and proceeded to the "Camp" where he would begin the wait for his flight home. Unfortunately, returning from the Middle East is nothing like returning from Disney World. You don't hop in a cab, plane ticket in hand, go through security and jump on your given flight. That would be much too easy and straightforward. Instead we wait and wait and wait some more, we wait for a phone call saying "your soldier should be on his way within 72 hours" then we wait for a call that says "you soldier should be on his way in 24 hours" and then finally a call saying "the plane is in the air, your soldier is on it" and if by chance that flight doesn't come upon any other delays between there and here they will finally be on their way home!

We got to the point of "your soldier should leave in 24 hours", they gave us a day and a time and a place to meet them and where to park. I jumped in on the cleaning and announced to the kids "Daddy will be home tomorrow!" and told Cali to mark off the rest of the days on her chart except for the #1. Well, low and behold I receive a text message, a facebook message, and even a phone call from my dear husband himself all confirming that yet again we will wait. Everything has been postponed by 24 hours, at the least. He told me that at least they found beds for them to sleep in (after 18 hours of sitting on hard chairs) and they were able to take showers and shave although they've already taken their bags away and all they have is their carry-ons.

As if waiting a whole year to have your husband back home, your kids' Daddy back home, isn't bad enough... this last week can really be a mess!

In the meantime, the kids have the first part of our "Welcome Home" sign all painted.