The Whole Story! (a little late)

So here's the whole story - Daniel arrived back in the US on Sunday, Dec 17th. He called me around 2pm from New Jersey! Can you believe that? I told him I would come over and pick him up!! It was hard knowing that he was 2 hours away and we couldn't see him. He said as he flew over eastern PA he could see our town and the highways around it. It must have been so hard to be so close to home and have to go all the way to west Texas before returning here! As of Sunday night he knew he would have processing all of Monday and Tuesday. At that point he was hopeful he could return home on Wednesday.

On Monday however he found out that they have to have an exit interview. They were scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday and they do them by rank. So Daniel, being only a Captain wasn't scheduled until Thurday morning. They had a reservation for him to return to Harrisburg at 9:30pm Thursday night. Well - if you know Daniel he has a way of talking people into things. He talked his way into an earlier interview - he just waits around and talks to the right people. It also helped that he had a friend who was a Colonel who went to bat for him. He called me Wednesday afternoon around 1pm. He told me he had already had his interview and would be arriving in Philadelphia at around 12:35am that night (Wed night, early Thurs morning).

As excited as I was, I was also a little stressed out. I thought I had 2 days to get ready for his return. Wednesday I would clean the house etc... and Thursday I would get laundry done, change sheets etc... Now I had a few hours to get everything done. Luckily, Daniel's office manager's college age daughter had come over for the day to help out. She mostly spent the day entertaining Ainsley which was a fabulous help. She also wrapped presents, made lunch, and folded laundry.

She left around dinner time and the kids and I ate some leftovers and ran Chase to basketball practice. On the way home we stopped off at the pharmacy for some large black markers and poster board. We needed to have some welcome home signs. When we returned home around 7:30, my sweet visiting teacher ( who had already spent several nights at my house helping me) called to say she and her college age daughter were coming over to do whatever I wanted. They came and folded laundry (so much laundry with a baby) put sheets back on the bed and helped the boys with their posters and helped me hang giant letters on the garage door that said "Welcome Home Soldier!! What a blessing they were.

I put Ainlsey down for bed around 8:30 and she slept til about 11:40. My mother called around 11:30pm to ask what time Dan's plane arrived. I told her 1:35AM (it had been delayed an hour) and that we were getting ready to get in the car. She said, "OK, we'll see you there". I couldn't believe they were going to come all that way at that hour but I am so glad they did because with 3 children that may have been too asleep to walk inside, a stroller, 2 cameras, 3 posters and a baby - I was so glad to have the help.

I must thank my father again for the photography displayed here. These pictures wouldn't have been taken if I was in charge with all that was going on. My dad even brought his trombone and was going to play the Army's fight song (as we go marching along) as Dan came down the terminal, but the plane arrived 10 minutes early and by the time we got to the gate people were already coming off the plane. We were too busy fumbling with getting the baby out of the carseat and cameras and posters ready that the trombone never made it out. (Although Daniel was on the last row of the plane and nearly the last person thru the gate so we probably would have had time if we'd known that). The trombone finally made it out of the case as we arrived back to our cars. It echoed generously thru the parking garage and Daniel sang along. Chase said that was his favorite part of the night! I have some of it on video and if I can put it up on the blog, eventually I will. It was a wonderful night!

Here are a few more photos from the evening!