This waiting to hear from my husband is so hard. He can't tell me about transportation or travel while in Iraq for security reasons, but it is so hard to wait. Especially with all the planning I have to do to be ready for this week, it is hard not knowing when I will have to take off to go get him from the airport. I am hoping to have tomorrow so I can take care of a few things. I have so much work to do in one day. I don't know how I will get it done.
The past two nights I have woken up in the middle of the night to check email. Then this morning, I get a text message at 5:06 a.m. telling me he will be landing just after lunch. ARghhhh! I immediately fly into high gear. I had thought I might have one more day to get things done. I had three class sets of essays to print out, four days of lessons to plan and all sorts of little nitpicky things to do, like teach all morning before I could take off to go get him.
I ran around slightly panicked for the morning, but managed (just barely) to get everything done. Then racing to get the baby and get to the airport, I got one more change of plans text message. Flight got delayed. I took care of one more errand and gave myself a few minutes to eat lunch. Then drove, shakily, to the airport. It started to sink in that he would be home in a few minutes. It was hard not to drive 100 miles per hour the whole way. I still got there in 11 minutes, when my GPS said it would take 22. I just took a route without stoplights. Lil Bit and I sat at the cafe area and waited to see a plane come in.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a plane on the runway. For a second I couldn't tell if it was taking off or landing. I kept checking the board to see which flight was coming in, but no flight was listed. I texted him, "R u here" and got back "our plane just landed." I was so excited to watch his plane pull up to the gate. Then we waited for daddy to deplane and come past the security gate. It was a pretty rare moment, just us waiting, not racing in from the parking lot, standing there excited looking expectantly from face to face.
Then he was there. After a quick hello and kiss, he scooped up his baby girl. She immediately grinned and tried to kiss him, which is little more than a poorly aimed headbutt. She remembered him and felt immediately happy in his arms. In fact, she pouted every time he put her down or gave her back to me for the first thirty minutes he was home.
While he didn't manage to stay awake past 8:30, he is home. The circumstances of his return aren't the best, and we are going to have some hoops to jump through in order for him to be able to stay for R&R as well as the emergency leave, but for today, he is home and even as I prepare to drag him off the couch, it is all that matters.
The past two nights I have woken up in the middle of the night to check email. Then this morning, I get a text message at 5:06 a.m. telling me he will be landing just after lunch. ARghhhh! I immediately fly into high gear. I had thought I might have one more day to get things done. I had three class sets of essays to print out, four days of lessons to plan and all sorts of little nitpicky things to do, like teach all morning before I could take off to go get him.
I ran around slightly panicked for the morning, but managed (just barely) to get everything done. Then racing to get the baby and get to the airport, I got one more change of plans text message. Flight got delayed. I took care of one more errand and gave myself a few minutes to eat lunch. Then drove, shakily, to the airport. It started to sink in that he would be home in a few minutes. It was hard not to drive 100 miles per hour the whole way. I still got there in 11 minutes, when my GPS said it would take 22. I just took a route without stoplights. Lil Bit and I sat at the cafe area and waited to see a plane come in.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a plane on the runway. For a second I couldn't tell if it was taking off or landing. I kept checking the board to see which flight was coming in, but no flight was listed. I texted him, "R u here" and got back "our plane just landed." I was so excited to watch his plane pull up to the gate. Then we waited for daddy to deplane and come past the security gate. It was a pretty rare moment, just us waiting, not racing in from the parking lot, standing there excited looking expectantly from face to face.
Then he was there. After a quick hello and kiss, he scooped up his baby girl. She immediately grinned and tried to kiss him, which is little more than a poorly aimed headbutt. She remembered him and felt immediately happy in his arms. In fact, she pouted every time he put her down or gave her back to me for the first thirty minutes he was home.
While he didn't manage to stay awake past 8:30, he is home. The circumstances of his return aren't the best, and we are going to have some hoops to jump through in order for him to be able to stay for R&R as well as the emergency leave, but for today, he is home and even as I prepare to drag him off the couch, it is all that matters.
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