Author name: Melissa Dunworth

Sometimes that is the motto of the army. Hurry Up and Wait!  It can drive an army wife nuts, especially when you are waiting for your loved one to come home.  This weekend, after SIX separate delays, my husband came home to us. I can’t remember the last time I cried so many tears of joy, oh wait, yes I can, it was the last time he came home 2 years ago! I thought I would share some pictures with you, but for those who have never been to a military homecoming ceremony, I will explain how this works.

First you get a phone call saying when your husband will be home, if you are lucky, he comes home on the day and time given, if you are less lucky, you will have multiple changes and delays.  You occupy your time by making welcome home signs, baking, and in our case recovering from being ill.

Anne was up at 6:30 the day her daya came home begging me to make our sign:

When the big day comes you typically go to a gym, most of the wives and children are dressed to the nines (we want to look our best for our loved one) and then we wait. There is a projection screen set up and it is usually focused on an airfield – where your husband’s plane is going to land. You haven’t heard screaming until that plane suddenly appears on that screen.

After the plane lands, the soldiers start to disembark and the screams get a little louder as wives and children start to recognize their loved ones! When Anne saw her Daya, she thought he was right outside the building and took off running to go get him, luckily my mom was faster than her and caught her before she got outside! After they arrive it is another 2-3 hours before you get to see them in person, they have to in-process at the base – luckily they turned a movie on for the kids to watch while they waited for their daddies.

The hardest part of the whole ceremony is when they start to raise the screen and you see those army boots. All you want to do is run and you have to stay put.  I had to pick Anne up and hold her back from running out to her daya.

Then they march towards you and you have to listen to the commander give a speech while you stare at your loved one and wish for him to be in your arms.

Anne was a trooper – she had a little fun while she was waiting.

Then finally finally, when the speech making is over, he is yours! For 48 hours anyways, after that he goes back to work.

So there you have it, there are army boots in my house again! Oh yeah, and I totally missed the first half of the Super Bowl, picking this guy up was way more important 🙂

I would like to say a personal thank you to all of my wonderful friends who have stood by my side this past 9 months. You have made this deployment so much easier and I am so grateful for each and every one of you.

I know I said there would be a giveaway at the top of this post. My wonderful friend Sondra (who has literally checked on me every single day for the last 9 months) from Contemporary Cloth wanted to help me celebrate our special reunion with a giveaway to her store, two of my awesome readers will win a $20.00 gift certificate to Contemporary Cloth!

As you hopefully already know, Contemporary Cloth specializes in unique fabrics not often seen anywhere else, Japanese Yuwa fabrics, organic fabrics, an outstanding selection of solids and so much more!

This giveaway will be open until February 13, 2013, I will announce the winner on Valentine’s Day – which will be extra sweet for us this year!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you haven’t already, make sure you enter your goal for February over on our Lovely Year of Finishes party! Tomorrow is the last day to link up. You only need to set one goal for each month.