After 5 day/time changes in the past 4 days, (including one just 3 hours before the ceremony LOL!) it was surreal.
Sunday - August 1st - about 8:30 am in the morning - This was my facebook post:
Go Army Go!! My kids and I are counting on you to get our #1 Daddy on a plane and heading this way TODAY! Please!!!!!!
- Kimberly Coulter Howard Actually you were counting on them to do that yesterday weren't you? I hope it goes better this time!
- Cyndi Denson Yes, but it didn't happen. You know how the Army works (or in this case doesn't work! LOL!) I'm happy to know it's just one more Sunday mass by myself, but by next week our pew will have one more :-)Yesterday at 9:59am ·
The kids and I went to mass in Manhattan, and went to Target and the library - mostly just to kill time away from the house so I wasn't anxiously waiting every second.
Got back home around 2pm and talked to a couple of the other wives confirming that no one had heard anything since about 10:15 am. We were all holding our breath - hoping this meant that they were on the move out of Iraq! The afternoon passed slowly as we waited for word to surface!
About 7 pm one of the other wives received a call from her husband in IRELAND!! About the same time I got a fraud alert on our credit card saying it had been used for $7 purchase at the USO - Ireland. (Naturally I approved the transaction!) Now our excitement went up, up, up - finally our guys were out of Iraq and on the way home! The wives buzzed all night long with excitement.
About 2:45 am on Monday morning -as I was dozing, waiting for the night to finally be turned to morning.... my phone rang!!!
I just heard the best thing EVER - my husband's voice calling from INSIDE the USA!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John was calling to say they had landed in Maine! It was tough to get back to sleep after that!!About 7 am we got word that they had landed at Topeka! So close, but still about 6 hours until we would see him! They have to take care of the weapons and sensitive gear before the ceremony.
By 9 am we were all up and dressed and ready to go even though the ceremony wasn't scheduled until 12:45 pm.
Dressed, hair done, make up is on. Sit here for 2 hours, sit there for 2 hours. SEEING MY HUSBAND - PRICELESS!!!!!
About 9:45 am I received a call saying the ceremony had moved up to 11:30 am (11:45 actually but I either misheard or the info was slightly off - but still it was GREAT NEWS!). I screamed, dropped the phone, jumped into the car with the kids and we sped to the site to get the best seats possible!
We landed in the front row!! And the waiting continued, but now the energy level was pumping! I couldn't sit down, I was jumping up and down, pacing in a circle, hugging, and waiting. So many wives, kids, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and friends were there. Time slowed to a crawl while we waited! Here's a picture of us waiting...
The building was filling, then over filling, and people were standing and pushing their way in. On the screens they were showing video clips of the guys earlier in the day doing the turn-in of the equipment and we saw John for about 20 seconds on the screen - how we cheered! They even played our road trip theme song "Life Is A Highway" by Rascal Flatts - the kids and I were singing and cheering. But still we were waiting........... when, when, when would they come in! We knew the guys were in the buses right outside the back of the building!
Finally at 11:37 the guys marched in - 220+ soldiers! We couldn't see John, but just seeing all of them made us scream, yell, cheer, and clap! The colors (that is their unit flag) were uncased, the national anthem was played, and we settled down a little to wait for the speeches to pass (still trying to tell which of the 220+ guys in ACUs was John! That was a mission impossible!)
But instead of giving any speeches Col Arnold simply said "Dismissed!" and the run was on!! I was in a little shock for a moment. Families came pouring out of the bleachers and soldiers came running towards us. The kids and I stood still, knowing he would find us, but it seemed to take entirely too long to catch sight of him! I saw Kris and Nicole Rainwater hugging with Baby Jakob squished between them (so cute!) and Kristi Lopez behind me screaming "Where is he?" as she frantically searched for her husband and suddenly she took off running and I laughed to see her mowing through the crowd towards Jessie! I spotted John and I realized he hadn't located us yet! I yelled over the crowd for him, the kids and I were waving our pinwheels frantically and he must have heard or seen us because he started moving our way!
After a quick hug, he went after his carry-on pack, and then we went to find his big duffle and gear. We headed to the car amongst so many happy families. I had practiced driving the route so many times that I was able to take the back route home and avoid most of the traffic that had piled up.
John had a shower and some civilian clothes and I made some bacon cheese burgers for lunch. Yummy! We played with the kids around the house, showing Daddy this and that, and telling silly knock-knock jokes. We headed out to Manhattan so John could see some civilization! A stroll around the mall, an early dinner at Applebees, and back home. John had been up since 2 am so by 7 pm he was ready to crash and that's where he is right now - sleeping in our bed!
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