Homecoming's!

This past week I was honored to help my best friend H welcome her husband back from 6 months of being gone! I have never been to a homecoming for any branch, but if I can say one thing about Navy homecoming's is that they are amazing. They are full of love, tears, and patriotism more than one can explain! To see these families who have been missing their core piece for so long, and to be a part of the anxiousness to hold their loved ones was awesome. One of my friends daughters sat with me for a bit and to see the excitement on her face when people could start to see the ship put tears in my eyes. She kept asking me when her daddy was going to get off of the ship and asking others to hold her up to see. I do no know what a deployment feels like, and unless you have you truly will not know what it feels like, but the share of excitement was more than enough to make this preggo woman loose her cool and spill the tears.

H has been so strong through this deployment, she had their first son right before her husband left and has been such an amazing mom and dad while he was gone. If I could ever hope to be like someone if/when R leaves, it's her. I spent the night and day before homecoming with her and little man, and to just see how she acted getting ready made me so proud and excited for her. All of the other ladies men had came and they had gone but we were still waiting for D. I took her camera to get ready to take pictures, and she just started crying. I of course started crying too lol, but the relief on her face of just.. He is home, our family is going to be complete was so strong and amazing to see. I stood in the isle looking for her husband and started freaking out when i saw him. Needless to say she took off running and it was amazing to be a part of her and him getting to see each other for the first time. When they were done with their hugs her whole body language changed. You could tell she was relaxed, relieved, and just so happy!

My husband has not been deployed yet, and I am so thankful for that. His ship thinks he is too valuable to send out- which is nice even though it frustrates him. When we first found out he was dry docked we had mixed emotions. I was relieved that he was going to be here, but he was anxious to get out there and be deployed. We always said we knew there was a reason that he was supposed to be here, and we know what those reasons were already. I would have never made it through loosing the first pregnancy, and them telling me we lost a second within 4 months all alone with no family, or that he would be okay dealing with it by himself on a ship. I have so much respect and admiration for those who have gone through or are going through deployments right now. It really does take a special person to be able to face that, and I can only hope that when our time comes that I can do it with as much grace and pride as my friends have, especially H. :-)