Ty's Homecoming

The day had finally come. After a long 137 days, we were finally going to be back together as a family. The week was terribly long due to 11, yes 11, different time changes and 5 straight days of heartbreak. From coming home two different times on Monday, then slipping into Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. As of Thursday night, I was really wondering if i would ever see him again. But very early Friday morning, I got a call from Ty saying that he was due to load a plane in just a few hours. We knew it was only going to take him about 24 hours from the time he took off until he'd reach home. However, it was the fifth time that week that he'd told me that, and things had been changed at the last minute. Needless to say, I didn't get my hopes up--at all! I didn't hear from him the rest of the day and was just planning on waiting for a phone call either from him or from someone in the squadron for an update. Neither came. I must have checked my email a thousand times that night for any new update saying that Ty and the few other guys had indeed loaded the plane for home. Still nothing. The next morning, I woke up and immediately checked my email. Ty had emailed me from Germany saying he'd be here that day (17 Jan) at about 1400 (2pm). I could hardly believe it. For the rest of the morning, I raced around the house while the kids just played and watched the normal Saturday morning cartoons. Ty and I both thought it was best that neither of them knew until we both knew for sure that he would be coming. After the week of 11 times changes, boy are we glad we decided that! Anyhow, we all got ready and at about 1 o'clock, I told them that we needed to get our coats on because we were going to the squadron. Being a true 4 year old, carter argued and complained that he didn't want to go and begged for us all to just stay at home. I figured this was my best opportunity to video the explanation of what the real plans for the afternoon were. Here's how it went:



As you can see, we were all very ready for this day. Carter talked the entire way out to base and Whitleigh would chime in by repeating every last word that he would say. Once we parked and met up with our friends Derek and Andrea, we all walked into the building together. We were able to watch all of the jets land which only meant one thing: our Daddy would be next! Derek and Carter sat outside and watched for a giant C-17 to appear through all of the haze and fog. Andrea, Whitleigh and I knew right away when the plane came into view only by the look on Carter's face. He spun around and started screaming, "It's Daddy! It's Daddy!" That's when we walked out on the flight line to watch the plane come around and land, for the first time on American soil. What a relief!

After watching it taxi down to the opposite end of the runway, we decided to drive down and meet him rather than have him drive down to meet us. Once we got to our assigned place, we still had to stand quite a ways from where the plane had parked. Since Ty had the amazing pleasure of having to take care of the squadron dog, Tantor, all the way home, there was a little hold up at first but it wasn't too long before we saw the guys jump into a van and start making their way to their families. Ty was in the front seat and as soon as the car parked, he jumped out. This was Carter and Whitleigh's invitation to run up to him and jump into his arms. It was an amazing reunion and pretty fun to see the expression on each of the kids' faces. Whitleigh smiled, but it was a nervous "oh my goodness you're a real person and not just living in a computer screen" smile. Carter, again, wouldn't stop talking. At one point he heard him say, "And look at my muscles Daddy, it's because I ate all my broccoli!" After standing outside for 30 minutes (brrrrrr), we all walked into a building so that Ty and the other guys could finish going through customs. It was after that when we were all free to go home--TOGETHER!

The kids and I had moved during Ty's deployment so he was coming home to a brand new house and neighborhood. As awkward as I thought it was going to be for him, he actually was excited and thought it was fun! Carter took the liberty to show him every square inch of the house and then proceeded to pull out every toy he's owned in the last 4.5 years. The evening was filled with wrestling matches, book reading, stories, games, and a Papa Murphy's Hawaiian Pizza. Both kids got to open some presents, and were more than ready for Santa to come that night while they were sleeping...more on that to follow!