Monday, May 17, 2010

Homecoming

Hello all.

Dan is home!

I got a phone call at 4:15am on Friday morning. It was Dan, and I was very surprised to hear him say that he was in Washington DC. Apparently he couldn't find a phone in the Kuwait airport so had to wait until they hit the US. He had a quick layover in DC and then flew here to LAX. It was a wonderful surprise to get him home 3 full days earlier then expected. I picked him up at LAX at about 10:20am. It took a while for all of his bags to come through baggage claim, but we got them all and then had to drive him down to work. He just had to check in and get information about reporting to work Monday (today). After that we came home, he ordered a pizza, and the 8 loads of dusty laundry began.

He's been sleeping alright, despite the 11.5 hour time difference between the US and Afghanistan. The first afternoon he took a 3 hour nap before I woke him up (I was afraid he wouldn't sleep at night if he kept napping) and then later he slept through the night. Saturday and Sunday nights he's woken up at 3am and had a rough time falling back asleep after that. He's been enjoying the Internet, the availability of new music (thank you i-tunes), and his phone. Our girls (the ferrets) are enjoying having new stuff to climb all over and check out. I've decided Rooster would be a fantastic TSA agent - she's all over his clothes, in and out of boxes, and very cautious of him. We spent the weekend running errands and eating at restaurants that he's missed. We got to go to church and have lunch with some friends yesterday. Today Dan is back at work, busy with paperwork and stuff like that.

Thank you again for all your love and support over the past few months. We can't wait to see you all!

~Jen~

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Foolish Excitement

Having a bad morning means your day can only get better from there, right?

School testing dates have been a mess, I feel like I might be getting sick, and then I got a call from Dan this morning. He's had a few hiccups in his flights, but hopes that he'll still make his final flight and be home the same time he's scheduled to be. Right now he's stuck on a base that's hard to get out of, but at least he's comfortable - he's got couches, cots, free Internet, and phone usage for 30 minutes at a time.

When he told me I'm not allowed to pick him up at LAX Monday morning I lost it. I've been fine - haven't cried in probably a week, maybe even more. It's dumb, I get to see him either way. What's a few hours when you've waited months and months? But, I lost it. For the past few months I've had an image in my head - an airport scene. Dan getting off the plan, us rushing to greet each other. Now it'll be him, two other people, and a van driving back to the Port Hueneme base. I've got to wait for him to call and say he's almost there, then drive out to the base to get him. It's foolish, I know. At least I get my husband back. I have no right to be upset about this small thing when so many husbands/wives are still over in the sand and will be for many more months. I get my husband home early, and that should be enough.

I'm trying not to let this keep me down. Trying being the operative word...

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Airport Kindness

The night before I left Florida to come home to CA I received a text message from a friend: “How do you stand missing Dan so much???? I get to see (insert friend’s fiancĂ©’s name here) 4 days a week but it still hurts on the other 3!!! :/ ” How do I respond to this? How do I explain the hurt, ache, and emptiness I feel in a text message? I replied with this: “I don’t have a choice. We don’t have a choice. We just do the best we can. Oh, and I cry a lot.” Her text message made me think. It made me try to find words to answer her question, how do I stand missing Dan so much? I don’t think I “stand” it. More like I endure it. Like I told her, it’s not something I have any choice about. It’s not something that I can fix, or that Dan can fix. I can’t explain to someone the physical feeling of missing someone. I can’t explain to her that even though we only slept in the same bed together for 2 months before he left, that I can’t seem to sleep without him now. How do you put worry into words? Or frustration? Or love?

Traveling back from Florida was rough, to say the least. I got up at 5am (Florida time) and Steph dropped me off at the airport around 6:15am. I went to check in, and my flight was cancelled. Instead of leaving at 7:45am, connecting in Dallas and arriving at LAX at 1pm I was leaving at 11:40am, connecting in Miami, and arriving at LAX at 4:35pm. Awesome. I called Steph, but she didn’t answer. I went through security (got chosen for the ‘body scan’ thing) and found my gate. Then I had 5 hours to burn. My I-pod was only half way charged, so I bought a charger for it and read some magazines for a while. There was an article in one of my magazines about elderly people greeting troops as they return home in an airport in Maine. The article and pictures made me cry, like so many other things in life have done over the past several months. I kept being really teary for a while. I know he’s coming home soon - really soon - but he’s not home yet and it’s still really hard.

At 10:30am I went and sat at my gate again. There was an elderly couple across from me who were waiting for the same flight. A guy in an Army uniform came and sat next to them. The woman leaned over and shook his hand, slipping him $20. This made me teary again. He thanked her and they talked for a bit while I tried to eavesdrop. The Army guy (Thornton) was on his way home from his deployment in Baghdad. Our flight switched gates, and I went and asked about it. They said our flight was 20-30 minutes late, which wasn’t good because we only had an hour layover in Miami. I told the couple and the four of us talked on and off for a while. They were heading to LA for a Bible Conference at Pepperdine. They were worried they would miss their shuttle, so I offered to give them a ride if they needed one. They were very grateful for that. Finally, we boarded our plane. It was tiny, and I fell asleep as soon as we were in the air. I didn’t wake up until they overhead said we were going to land. The elderly couple were sitting behind me, so we talked about how to get to our next gate quickly. We had to wait for a shuttle to take us to the terminal. We walked very quickly and were the last ones on our flight to LAX - literally. We were very glad to have made it.

I stayed awake long enough to buy a sandwich and eat it, then I went to sleep. I must have slept 2-3 hours, because I woke up and only watched the first hour of an hour and a half movie before they told us to put our stuff away for landing. We landed at LAX at 4:45pm - perfect for LA traffic. I found the elderly couple at the baggage claim and asked if they needed the ride. They were very grateful and said that they would make their shuttle. I called the parking place and went to get my shuttle to my car. I drove home on Highway 1 and didn’t hit too much traffic. I got home at about 6:50pm. The girls were excited to see me, which made me feel good. I unpacked, did laundry, sorted our mail, returned emails, showered, uploaded my pictures, and hung out before going to bed at 10pm. I’d been up since 2am CA time, but I couldn’t sleep. You’d think after 4.5 months I’d be used to sleeping alone again. I finally crashed out around 11:45pm.

I probably won’t ever forget the elderly couple in the airport or Thornton, the Army guy. The kindness and compassion they showed him touched me. Their gratefulness at my offer for the ride touched me. I never expected that my boring 6 hour wait in the Jacksonville airport would affect me like it did. I’m glad my original flight was cancelled. I hope that someday I can show kindness and gratitude to someone like that couple did to Thornton. I hope my husband receives the same kindness when he is traveling home to me in two weeks.