I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

We've been playing and singing the Primary song, "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home, glad as I can be..." We finally got him home and could sing it to him. Five months seemed like a long time when we first started this deployment. When I thought about the time, I kept thinking it was just shy of half a year. Yuck. Too long. Even though it's been a long time, and looking back we've had a lot of months worth of experiences this summer, it's over now and it's gone by fast.

The kids can't stop climbing on David and I can't stop staring at him. After months of me being the adult in the house, it's a transition to have a tall dark man in my house. But, tall dark and handsome is what keeps me staring I think. (wink...)

David is so happy to be off the ship. The name of the ship is the USNS Comfort. They started calling it the Un-comfort. Last night when he got into bed, he had to do a little happy dance because he had so much space. I didn't sleep good because cover hog was snatching MY covers. Oh well, transition is good. And I can't believe how much I missed this man.

Here are some pictures of our reunion.


As soon as the ship gets to a certain point near the pier, the tugboats get a hold of the sides and guide the ship in. This process takes FOREVER. About an hour later, the ship is pier side.


After the ship stops, there are about eight million things that have to be done before anyone steps off the brow (that's the little walkway that they walk off the ship on.) Here is a picture of the sailors getting the ropes and tying the ship up to the pier side. After the ship is secured, the captain (skipper) usually gets off the ship and talks to the media. And since the ship was in foreign ports, a customs inspector has to go on the ship and do an inspection. During all this, we sat in the truck and waited. The kids played games and I just waited and watched. We finally went over to the pier and the kids held up their signs, one for daddy and one for Billy, David's good friend, who's family is out of town right now.
The ship pulled in at noon. After everything is done, and the brow finally opens and the sailors start coming out, it's almost 2:00. There is a lottery on ship and the winner gets to be the first one off to have the first KISS. After that guy comes out, that's when the watch begins. Everyone comes out in numbered waves. So, David was in wave #9 out of 40.

We were in the band families group. Everyone waiting for wave #9. At almost 2:45 pm, I finally heard someone say, "there's a bass!" Someone saw one of the guys carrying his bass guitar and we knew it was wave #9. It's hard to tell which man is ours because they all look the same in their uniforms. But we finally spotted him, with a big smile on his face and we finally got our hands on him.


We finally got home around 4:30pm. The house smelled divine with a roast in the crock pot and we had a fun evening catching up and having homemade cookies (which are gone by the way, TWO days later.) On Saturday David gave us all some travel goodies, a leftover MRE (the band had to eat them sometimes because they would get back from their gigs and the kitchen would be closed) blankets from Ecuador, ceramic bird whistles from Nicaragua, shirts from Guatemala, and dark chocolate from Guatemala.



After a busy weekend, we attended church together as a family, and I haven't stopped smiling. I am so grateful for his safe return. What a ride, for all of us. Our blessings have been increased and we're so grateful to be together.