Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Another TWO Bite the Dust!

During John's R&R, I crossed off a few more items from my 100 in 365 list. Over the next few days, I'll share those. It seems fitting to first write about the bookends of his leave-- when he came home and when he left.

First-- and appropriately-- John's return:



You've seen this picture before, but it is one of two photos immediately taken following John's half-homecoming. His brother took one in the airport of John-- and it's really cute-- but I'm in the background, awkwardly staring at something off camera, with my mouth gaping open, slinging my apish arms into my coat. In the interest of -- well, let's be real-- because I'm a little vain, I'm just going to post this photo again.

John's R&R homecoming was amazing. I'm so glad that I was able to be at the airport with his family to pick John up. It definitely did a number on my nerves-- when we saw that his plane was at the gate, my hands and arms went numb. (Don't worry, this happens a lot to me in stressful situations. I'm not having a heart attack. Yet.)

While we sat facing one set of escalators that we were absolutely positive John was going to take down to us, he took the other set, located-- of course-- behind our seats. Just as I was about to pass out from excitement, John popped up in front of us. Of course, we all freaked out-- hugs and kisses all around. I have not been so happy so quickly ever in my life.  And I have never squeezed John's hand so hard, or looked at him so many times, or smiled so widely. I should have done mouth exercises so that my mouth would not start hurting a few minutes into smiling so much.


And this scary gem is our goodbye picture. The sad thing is, we took a bunch of photos and in every single one, I look terrible-- puffy, bloodshot, red eyes, weird expressions. Just awful. So I opted for the least awful photo-- the one where I look like a creeper. And yes, this is the best one out of the eight or so that we snapped. (Did I mention I have awful coordination? I closed my eyes for this picture after I took it. I need to work on things like that.) I'll just have to embrace its awfulness.

The goodbye at the airport was much harder than I anticipated. We've always been a long distance relationship, and, unless you count the time we spent in college being in the same town (which we don't, since we weren't dating then), John's R&R is the longest, continuous amount of time we've ever spent together.

For those 15 days, it really was like John's seven months in Afghanistan had never happened. It was magical being able to talk to him without a Skype delay or a popping internet connection or having to end and restart a call five times before getting ten minutes of talk time. It was almost strange to see his face unpixellated, or to see more than just his head and upper chest at one time.  And the fact that he was 100% safe? That was the best part of all. After worrying for so long, it felt good to... not.

So having to give all of those things up at once was tough. I don't know if I cried more than I did the first time around, but I definitely cried harder. And I'm sure there were a number of travelers walking by us that I made extremely uncomfortable with my puffy, red face.  And no matter how many times we said, "It's just [a number less than seven] more months. We already did seven. It's just [a number less than seven] more," it still felt like the end of the world.

Originally, John wanted me to drop him off at the airport. And then we found out that airlines will actually issue temporary boarding passes to family members or significant others of deploying service people. So, I got a boarding pass and went through security. Then, John wanted me to leave him at departure atrium. I definitely couldn't do that. And then we were going to say goodbye in an empty waiting area before John's plane was called for boarding. But we couldn't do that either. And then we decided we were going to say goodbye before John's seating section was called for boarding. Nope, no can do.

Of course, we ended up saying goodbye when they called his section, at the last possible second. Every single moment, even ones that were soggy with tears, was precious. Walking away is always the worst. Every second, I wanted to run back and kiss him one last time or say one more thing or get one more hug, but somehow-- and thinking about it now, I really don't know how I did-- I kept walking away.

I wasn't sobbing or drawing attention to myself, but my eyes were pretty well swollen shut by that point. And I was trying to keep my head down so people wouldn't see them. I ended up almost walking into a pole. And into a garbage can. And I almost fell down the escalator stairs. It's a wonder I didn't walk into someone, but I'm certain that people were avoiding me like the plague.

And now, there's only two more items to cross off in that section of my 100 in 365 list: Make a sign for John's homecoming, and be there to see him come home.

I. Cannot. Wait.


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28 comments:

  1. Touching blog!

    I nominated you for the Liebster award!

    http://www.polkadotpixies.com/2013/01/liebster-award.html

    Hugs!
    Heidi

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Heidi! And thanks for the shout-out!

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  2. R&R goodbyes are really hard. The emotional rollercoster is on overdrive: the elation of being reunited, the joy of spending time together, the looming presence of time slipping away, and then the suckiness of goodbye. It sounds to me you handled it as well as could be expected. I can very vividly remember my own head down walk through the airport after saying goodbye to my husband.

    The good news is: you are more than halfway done! You can definitely make x more months. You've handled yourself fantastically well. I'm crossing my fingers that the time flies by for you both!*

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    1. Thanks, Amy! Your comment made me tear up! I hate that other people have had to do the airport walk, too. I wish no one had to do that!

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  3. Very touching! I hope the times flies by and he is home soon!

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    1. Thank you for your dropping in and for your kind words! :-)

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  4. Such a sweet story. I can't wait for him to come back to you! It was inspiring for me to read because like you, my relationship with my Marine has been Long Distance the whole time (little over a year) and we've never spent longer than a week together. Sometimes I find myself wondering if it can work because we've never been around each other long enough to really bond and hang out and spend time together. But then I see posts like this, someone who is going through the same thing I am, and it gives me hope that if you can do it, so can I. =]

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    1. Thanks, Miranda! I understand that fear... at least for us, we know that our relationship is strong enough to deal with the little things. I mean, if we could make it through deployment, I think we can handle a fight about closet space. :-D And, if I can make it (I'm the worlds biggest wuss), you can! :-)

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  5. AWWW, CANNOT wait to read your welcome home post for him!! :) That will be THE BEST!!

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    1. That's perfect! Because I CANNOT wait to write it! :-D And now I'm smiling ear-to-ear!

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  6. It is so hard to say good-bye. But I bet you are going to have the best homecoming sign EVER!

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    1. I hope so! I've been brainstorming since--(well, this is embarrassing-- June. :-D

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  7. OMG!! I cried...!
    It is so hard to say goodbye. I had a bit of a long distance relationship with my dauther's father and everytime we said goodbye to each other, it broke us. ..
    I can't imagine what you're feeling not being able to do anything abou tit

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    1. Oh no! My intent was not to make anyone cry! No matter the circumstances, long distance is just hard. And I don't think it gets easier. But I also think that's a good thing-- what's the point of being with someone who it's easy to say goodbye to?

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  8. So glad you enjoyed the time together! Prayers for a safe and quickly passing round two!
    http://normalchaosforamultitaskmom.blogspot.com/2013/01/fun-with-luke.html

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    1. Thank you, Michelle! I truly appreciate that!

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  9. awww thanks for sharing this touching time with us. Hugzs

    Tabby
    http://www.shoppingwives.com

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  10. awww thanks for sharing! Time will pass quickly and he'll be home soon!

    Melanie
    The 5th Level of Motherhood

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  11. Wow. I am in awe on how military wives are so strong. You and your husband sound very blessed to have each other.

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    1. I'm a pretty lucky lady, that's for sure. :-)

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  12. http://noordinarydeploymentlove.blogspot.com/

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  13. And you didn't think you had anything to contribute to our Sweets For My Sweetie link-up! What is more appropriate than this?!?!?! I love reading about your love story, even if parts of it makes me tear up like this one! I can't help counting the days (though I have no idea how many those are) with you. I pray for his safety and his safe return to you in ____ amount of time! :) Thank you for sharing your heart with us!

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Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with me! Keep in touch!

Best wishes always,
Jo