Best Two Weeks of my Life

I received another news paper article from my parents today. My Parents take an article a week from the blog and send it to the news paper in their home town. Todays article made me think about a decision that I made not to put anything about home on the site. I had decided that this was my time but now I am thinking back and think it would be something nice for me to reflect on from time to time.

This was by far the best two weeks of my life. I remember arriving at the gate in Abilene. The excitement made my heart beat so hard that I was afraid that the rest of the people on the plane would hear it. My excitement was almost uncontainable and was definitely uncontrolable. I thanked the flight attendant and the captain and rushed off the plane. I remember seeing my sons first and my smile was so big that it hurt. Then my wife more beautiful than ever. She has been working out and had lost some weight. The hug was a long one that I could have held forever. My parents were there and the greetings were just awesome. I was on cloud 9 for the rest of the day. In all of the excitement I still remembered to wish my wife a happy birthday.

During my visit home I prayed daily that time would stand still. I did not want the days to end. The first night I fell asleep quite early. I did not want to sleep at all while at home but the three day journey took its toll on me. The first week we did nothing. We stayed together every waking moment in hopes to make up for some of the time lost. Russ graduated from high school the First Friday I was home. This was awesome. I made a promise to him that I would be there for his great achievement before I left knowing that it would not be an easy promise to keep. God was looking out for me and helped make this promise to be kept. After his graduation we went to the water park down by San Antonio. This has been an almost yearly ritual of ours for quite sometime. It was awesome. I came to realize that Todd was growing up. He had been too afraid to ride any of the rides the last time we went but this time he had no fear. We rode almost every ride there. We had to be told to leave as the park closed. During my time in country I had spent little to no money so we I arrived home I went on a spending spree that is not like me. It was well worth the time. Todds birthday was the day before I had to leave so I bought him a bicycle and taught him to ride it. As the days passed for me in Iraq I came to realize that I had not been there for him and spent lots of time with him showing him that I am his father and that I love him. I know he knew this but it seemed as if I did not feel it.
Well that is it in a nutshell. The time at home thankfully did drag by the first week felt like a month. The second week seemed to pass alot quicker but still we managed to celebrate the time together. Upon my return I was asked if there was one thing that people said when I was home that I did not want to hear what was it. I was quick to respond that so many people had asked "when do you leave?" This was something that I did not want to think about and tried to forget that I did have to leave. God watched over my trip home and made it happen on the dates that I wanted to be there. How many other people could say that they were home for two birthdays a graduation and a holiday. I am blessed.