We survived our first deployment!

My husband, Mark was gone from June 7, 2009 to April 13, 2010 on deployment. The longest 10 months of my entire life! I'm happy to say that we DID it! We survived our first deployment and our marriage is better then ever before. We both have a new appreciation for each other and for our country. 

As you may have noticed I haven taken a little break from blogging lately. I have SO much to catch up on!

 It all started with a fun little road trip from Dallas, TX to Bentonville, AR. I made the 6 hour drive by myself with the girls. Mark's Mom flew in from WA and met us at Mark's Grandma's house. They kept the girls for me so that I could go pick up my husband in Gulfport, MS by myself. We decided not to bring the girls and that it was important for us to spend time together alone. As soon as the girls were settled in with both of their Grandmas who were going to spoil them rotten, I was off to Gulfport MS. The drive was 11 long hours, blue skies, green grass, and my ipod on shuffle. Every second of that drive I thought about our reunion. How would I react? How would he react? Would it be wired seeing him after 10 months? I had so many thoughts going through my head. I finally made it to Gulfport and checked in to my room and waited. I arrived on a Saturday night and Mark's flight was supposed to arrive on Monday. He finally made it from Kuwait to Germany to the U.S. and  then their plane broke down in Maine. :( So their flight was delayed a whole 24 hours. HURRY UP AND WAIT, that's how the Military rolls! I spent that first couple of days in Gulfport trying to keep myself busy. I went to the beach by myself, went shopping by myself, ate all of my meals by myself. It was weird! I'm so used to having kids to take care of all the time. After a very sleepless night, it was time. I arrived 4 hours early to the base on April 13th and hung out with other military wives and families. My heart was racing. I wanted to jump up and down out of excitement but didn't because I didn't want to look like an idiot. I stood there in my blue dress, with my camera (of course), holding an American flag waiting for my husband to step off that white bus, after 10 months of being in Kandahar, Afghanistan. I spotted his blue eyes in the sea of dessert uniforms and raced into his arms. It was one of the best days of my life. It was such a rush of emotion. Welcome home Love!