Homecoming

Chad is home! Everyone is happy to be together and I am so thankful he is safe and sound.
Last night was a loooooooong night. His flight was originally supposed to arrive at 8:15 pm, which is already a little late for my girls to be out and about. But several people told me I would surely regret it if I didn't take them and have "that moment." So I told them we were going, and we even made signs to take with us.

Abbey's work in progress.

Then we found out that OF COURSE, their flight was delayed. (And no, this was not a military flight, it was a commercial flight through the evil Atlanta airport.) First it was delayed until 9:20 pm. Ouch. But they were already climbing the walls with excitement, so we headed out.

Ready to go! (Abbey is holding her Daddy doll. The front side is Chad! I will have to get a picture of that another time.)

Let me stop for a second and mention my friend Tina. Tina's husband, was on this deployment with Chad. Even though they had worked together since last summer, I had never met Tina until February at a "Bon Voyage" party. Her son is 2-1/2 and we figured out pretty quickly that if we stuck together, these four months would be a lot more bearable. I am so thankful for her friendship- and that our kids get along so well!

Well, back to last night, we met up with Tina at the airport, and another band wife and her kids. We were able to get passes to go back to the gate to meet them, which was great, but also meant that we had to go through security- complete with taking off our shoes, collapsing my giant stroller to go through the machine, and having the water in the girls' bottles "tested."

It was a little chaotic.

Once we got to the right gate, we broke out the snacks and Tina the Genius turned on the DVD player to keep the kids happy. And it's a good thing they were happy because right about then we found out that 1) the gate had changed and we had to move, and 2) the flight was now delayed until 10:00 pm.

If only the adults could have been this calm.

Finally the time was getting close. Get out your signs...

... forget the signs, let's go look out the window. It was so cool seeing their plane pull right up.

Then we went and stood right in front of the exit with our signs. I wish I had a picture of our faces when we saw each other, but I was a little busy crying. :0) But I have these pictures:

She really was very happy, just a little overwhelmed.

Elliott was exhausted by this point and would not let Chad put her down.

Together again!

There were only 8 people in Chad's group so everyone was hugging each other and saying Welcome Home and taking pictures. We had to wait a while for Chad's checked bag and do a lot of up and down and across the airport to get back to the car and it was very late when we got home. Probably 11:00 or 11:30. But there was one other "person" who had to say hello to Chad. (Please excuse my loud voice in this video, I was so tired!)

So there you have it, the story of a happy homecoming! Now if you'll excuse me from blogging for a little bit, we are going to have fun getting back to being a family of four.