Family,  Military and Veteran Life

pink ribbons, camouflage, and one happy baby boy!

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Monday, September 5th, 2011…what most people knew as Labor Day.

What I knew is that it was the day my husband was coming home for mid-tour leave!!!

I woke up at 3am totally unable to sleep because of the butterflies. I was awake for a while and then fell back to sleep. I woke up around 6am and the butterflies were worse. I had a BAD stomach ache. I knew I wouldn’t be getting any more sleep, so I got up to change the sheets on the bed. I had just gotten the sheets stripped when I had to run for the bathroom. Ewww…these nerves were really getting to me. I continued (unsuccessfully) to try to change the sheets, and then ran to the bathroom to throw up in the sink! At this point, I knew it was more than just nerves and butterflies. I had come down with a bad stomach flu!

It was going around. Some of the people I had spent time with over the weekend were posting on Facebook about their symptoms, the same as mine. I laid on the couch pretty much just trying to keep the pain away. Every time I got up to do anything, I’d end up in the bathroom. I tried eating toast and drinking ginger tea, but I couldn’t keep it down.

I laid there wondering what in the world to do. I still had some last minute cleaning to do. I had scheduled to send Ezra to the baby-sitters to get my nails done. That obviously wasn’t going to happen! Instead I called Ezra’s babysitter and asked her to bring me some gingerale and crackers! At that point (around 8AM) I figured that my only goal was to make it to the airport that afternoon. The house, the dress, the nails, the hair – none of that mattered. I just wanted to be in his arms again!

At 9AM I called a friend and prayer warrior and asked her to pray with me and for me. We prayed that the devil wouldn’t keep me from making it to the airport! From 9-12 things went like this: eat a cracker, drink ginger ale, run to the bathroom, feel better for all of about 10 minutes in which I would speed clean, lay down, repeat. Somehow the house slowly got in order, and I started to feel a little bit stronger.

I lost about three pounds that morning, which is kind of nice, considering my homecoming dress went from being “a tad snug” to “just about perfect.”

Around noon I got the call that Russ had made it to Atlanta. He told me that he was trying to get on an earlier flight that was scheduled to land around 2:45. He told me that if I didn’t hear back from him, that he made it on the flight. If he didn’t make it, he would call. Commence panic attack. There was no way I was going to be able to get ready, drive up to the airport, go through security, and make it to the gate on time…but I was going to try. I was a bit relieved when he called again to tell me he didn’t make it on the earlier flight and was scheduled to get in around 4. Now I actually had a chance to get pretty!

Facebook Status, 2:11 PM: Despite allergies, the flu, and a lack of sleep…This girl didn’t let the devil win today! leaving for the airport to go pick up MY LOVE – complete with contacts in, makeup on, hair done, nails AND toes painted, and my baby boy ready to nap on the way!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I was pretty amazed that I made it the 50 minute drive to the airport without getting sick – at all. I was pale and had only eaten about a dozen saltine crackers all day, but I was so excited just to have made it there. I got through security without any issues and passed some time shooting a few pictures.

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Ezra was quite excited to be in a new place. He liked watching airplanes and crawling around the terminal.

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I passed my camera off to a WONDERFUL stranger who was willing to take photos. Then there was the waiting…

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But we didn’t have to wait for very long before some other spouses from our unit showed up, excited to pick up their husbands too!

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We were all checking our phones and iPads pretty much obsessively until we could see the flight status change to LANDED! About 2 seconds later my phone rang and Russ told me, “I’m HERE!”

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It didn’t take but a few minutes before the plane pulled up!

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One last nervous fixing of the hair…

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Russ managed to be one of the first few people off of the plane. I did a little happy-hop when I saw him for the first time. His first words were, “Who’s this big boy?!?!” He gave us both a sweet quick embrace and immediately took Ezra. They connected instantly!

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This picture pretty much says it all!

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I have a lot of blogging to catch up on! Our RnR has been an amazingly wonderful time, but not without its challenges. I hope to share a lot of it with you readers over the next few weeks – it’s just going to take some time.

Now that you’ve seen the photos, here’s the video. It’s slightly out of focus, but you’ll get the picture!!

RnR Homecoming Story