My life has surely done a 180 on me in the last twenty days. Everything seems different. Where do I start?? Well, the real story starts at the mall on Friday the 25th of January at 7 pm. I was in a dressing room when I got a call. Perhaps not the best place to get a call, yet when your husband is deployed there are no best or worst places to get phone calls. If your phone rings the drill is simple you drop whatever you are doing, and when necessary jump over anything in your way and run for it. Thankfully, it was husband!!! And it was not only my husband but my husband calling from his own cell phone rather than the ships line. It meant he had to be really close. I was so excited that he was calling from his cell phone that I started carrying on as a school girl and letting him know how excited I was that he was on his own phone. His words in return were “L, listen very carefully” – I came to a sudden halt and my joy was replaced apprehension - sounded like the beginning of a covert operation but his next words were a flood of relief. He was coming home 3 days early!! After coping through making up a more distant date than the Navy gave me of his home coming so not to get disappointed if he was extended – my husband was actually coming home early!!! 3 whole days! It might sound crazy to get excited about 3 days- but you would understand if you have a loved one deployed. Those last days were dragging on and on and as the day got closer I got worse and worse because very soon does not mean the same thing as now. His coming home early meant for the first time in six months I needed all the time I had. Without him every hour closer to him was a triumph. After months of counting down the months, weeks, days, and hours- I no longer had time to count. I had a place to go and person to meet- MY HUSBAND!!!!
After jumping up and down in the dressing room, I dropped what I was doing and ran. I finally got home, finished packing and left in the morning!!! It was certainly felt like a very long six hour drive even though I was blessed with great weather and zero traffic. I thought I would have shed more tears of joy and relief because of the momentousness of this drive. But just as it happened at our wedding, the moments I think I am going to cry I never do. I did greet that Welcome to Virginia sign with teary eyes-I was in Virginia!! I was going to see my husband tomorrow! Yet, I was also feeling that I was now in my usurped state of VA. I might live in you, Virginia, for the next three years, but you certainly do not feel like home. By-passing the long line of visiting cars, I sailed through the base gate with my car decals. I was tired from the few hours of sleep I had gotten the night before and the drive, yet my soul wouldn’t rest until I saw the pier. Looking at that empty pier 16, gazing at the water, and listening to the quiet waters all by myself in the haze of dusk was my own way of saying farewell to this deployment.
I was so thankful for my sound slumbers the night before the big day. I awoke before the sun, curled my hair, and prepared to meet my husband. So happy and so excited!!
I was out the door by 8:30 am with a 5 min drive ahead of me. When I got to the pier, I saw another ship and I thought for a second that I had missed the arrival. But I hadn’t and proceeded to line the pier with the rest of the families. It was a beautiful morning. Yet still a cool winter morning which made me pleased with my planning of a long wool coat, a pair of knee high boots, and leather gloves. It was so exciting and rather very strange to feel so comfortable with complete and utter strangers. I had never seen any of these faces before, yet this is where I finally fit in because on this strange pier in this strange state of VA these families were just like me counting down to this very day until their loved ones came home. I was right next to a girl who had been married to her husband half the time I had been to mine before the ship went out. Seeing the mothers of the babies born during the deployment sent my tears flowing. After months of getting sympathetic hugs and smiles, it was my time to ache for these others who went through more than I did. The strength of having a baby with a husband out to sea awed me as my heart said a prayer that I too would be strong if such is God’s timing for us. The Navy band's tunes carried into the air as we waited together, and when the ship rounded the corner and first came in sight there was a beautiful cheer.
It was just amazing. So after tugging and pulling in backwards, the ship was there at its port all safe and sound. There was more waiting. My heart was torn between complete happiness that my husband was safe and impatience because I wanted to be with him now. We had to wait about an hour for the ship to get tied down and a crane to help. So, I waited with a huge smile and teary eyes. And there he was my husband!!!!!!!!! I wanted to jump on the ship (go on this gangplank) but I waited where I was because I told him where to meet me and out of fear my heel would get stuck in gangplank grid. It felt as a dream as he hugged me and kissed me and we walked back to the car together. It was a crazy normal feeling. I knew being with him was normal, yet I felt as if I was on a cloud. He said that being with me felt completely normal and that the last six months were what felt like a dream. We both were once again whole.
