Reuniting Part I

I wrote this out and it was three pages long. So I’m breaking it up into days in hopes that you will read every word. :)

Reuniting after a 15-month deployment ranks up there with the birth of my children. It was better than my wedding day, to be perfectly honest.

The families were discouraged from traveling all the way to the place they de-mobed. It's in the middle of nowhere, hot as heck, and expensive to get the entire family out there for the 5-7 day process of making sure your soldier isn't crazy and that the Army gets the bills for all their medical issues.

Terry is not crazy but he is profoundly changed, mostly by what he saw and his living conditions.

The Army is responsible for his terrible hearing and constant headaches. Wait. Scratch that. The bottom feeding terrorists who put the IED in the path of his convoy is responsible, but the Army has to pay for the damage. His hearing is so bad in one ear he couldn't join the Army if he wanted to enlist today. He looks like an old man, cupping his hand to his right ear, squinting his eyes and saying, "What was that?"

But I digress. Back to the week - being the fiscally prudent person that I am, I put emotions aside and decided to wait for him at his home station (remember, we're a Reserve family so our soldiers are literally from all over the country). But at the last FRG teleconference we got the details on how they would arrive, where they would go and where the families who chose to attend would meet their soldiers for the first time - and I just couldn't stay home! I'm never one to miss a party and this was going to be ten times that. I decided I was going no matter what - and I was going to surprise him.

I called a friend who lives about three hours north of me and she agreed to take the boys. I booked a flight that night, reserved a hotel and a rental car and in the back of my mind I knew the Army would be true to form and change their arrival date. By that time it was into the wee hours of the morning. It was rash and unlike me to make plans spawned from a million emotions, but the vision of his surprised face and me jumping into his arms was irresistible.

And about two days later I began to panic. Rumors started flying.

"They're coming home on the 1st."

"No, the 31st."

"They'll be in Kuwait on the 31st but they could be there for four days."

"Santa Claus is flying them home."

Arrgggh! Who to believe? What to do? I agonized about whether to change my flights, hotels, cars, waxing appointments, etc. I asked a friend who flies for an airline that transports troops to HELP me. He was going to BE in Kuwait on the 28th, the rumored day that Terry would depart for the U.S. He called a friend to find out if they had flights going out that day. They didn't. I called one of the commander's on his cell phone (one of ten calls in a week) to dig for any morsel of information on when Terry would be in. He couldn't be sure either. Sigh.

Feeling stressed I go home and check my email. Terry wrote:

somebody wants us out of country. I am leaving XYZ tonight
(usually takes two days to get a flight) and they say we will be leaving Kuwait
tomorrow night...Conspiracy theories are running wild, they want to keep us from
hitting the 1 year on ground mark (makes us a little more deployable) I think
they are just trying to save money.

ALMOST HOME

LOVE

Yes!!!! I scramble to bump all my plans up four days, pack for me and the boys and grab my neighbor to watch my house while I'm gone - and I'm off. After about three hours of sleep that night I catch my flight to surprise Terry.

I overlooked one teensy, weensy detail - how to explain why I’m not home. He called while I was at the airport getting ready to board my flight. I lie my ass off as to why he can't talk to the boys and where the hell I am.

Told him I was going to see the shrink and the boys were going to daycare. Lies. All lies.