Michael's Homecoming

Yes, this is also the same weekend that Michael was scheduled to come home! Originally it was supposed to be Wednesday, and then it was moved to Friday afternoon. It was then changed again to Saturday evening at 6pm. Through everything that was happening with Nate, I wasn’t calling the hotline, checking on the flight arrival information, like I normally was a million times a day. Jaime called and found out that it had changed yet again, still Saturday night, but at almost midnight! Since that would be too late to take Landon out, Jaime took him back to the house to spend the night there, and Jeremy took my up to Stout Field in Indianapolis for the welcome home ceremony. I don’t think it really hit me that he was coming home until shortly before they arrived. Then I got really excited and as soon as they were dismissed I threw down my poster, jumped a chair and ran to him. It was so good to see him and hug him and have him hug me again. Normally all troops were to receive an hour with their families before heading to Camp Atterbury to out process for five days. Since Nate was in the hospital, Jaime and Jeremy contacted Red Cross and got a message sent up to Michael’s company. Poor Michael got the message as he got on the bus at the airport and didn’t know what was going on. So instead of staying up there for an hour, he was released to come back down here to go to the hospital. It was 2am and he didn’t want to wake up Nate, so he just looked him over through the crib bars and rubbed his little head. I can’t imagine what he was thinking looking at him, since the last time he saw him in person Nate was just a little newborn. He stayed until 4:30am and then had to head back up to Camp Atterbury. I’m so glad he’s safe and sound back in the states, but I am looking forward to Thursday, when he can home for good. It’s hard to sit here and know he’s so close and not be able to see him. Hopefully there will be a couple of evenings we will be able to go up there to visit.