The day is January 19. The year is 2012. I was in a panic that entire day. I must have put on at least 10 different outfits and rearranged his welcome home sign 4 times. Holding the little flag you see in this picture was a last minute idea when I decided to buy it from the Air Port gift shop while waiting on his plane to land. My husband was coming home for his R&R in the middle of his 12 month deployment. The area around the gate where the people came in was so crowded. When I saw the combat boots and ACU’s, I knew it was my husband before I even saw his face; considering there were other military men coming home for their r&r also. As soon as I saw him, I remember pushing through the crowd of people to get to him. I’m sure I even hit someone’s boob. When I reached him, I jumped into his arms. The first words I heard as soon as he held me were “I missed you so much. I missed you so much baby. Damn I missed you”. As he set me down, my sweater got stuck onto his velcro so I flashed everyone my bra. However, I didn’t care. I had my then fiance back in my arms and home to stay with me for the two short weeks. 6 months later from this day, he redeployed back to me. A year later, here we are in our apartment, married, and planning our PCS move to Germany. We’ve been through so much. I love him so much with all my heart. And you can tell by the way he’s digging his head into my shoulder, trying to hold and touch every part of me, that he loves me too.
