Home Sweet Home

M. is finally home...it's so hard to believe that it was exactly one year ago today that he left for Iraq. By now, we've had a few days to start the process of unpacking his things, picking up his last footlocker at the post office and reconnecting some of the things that you need for daily life (DSL service being at the top of the list!) Hence, we've been without internet for the past few days. It sounds like the web continued to move without us, though, and that many of you have seen photos of the homecoming ceremony already. It was a long, arduous journey back for the unit, but we didn't leave the post that they returned to without saying goodbyes to a few of the people that M. became especially close to during the year, including his commander and 1SG, both of whom said some really, really heartfelt and kind things to me about M., which made me even more proud of him. I'm so glad that he had some really great people to work with, and to share a laugh with, too, because that's just as important as everything else that goes on down there. It was only a temporary round of farewells, though, as they will all do standard post-deployment out processing together for the next several days before going on leave. After we got home that day, I also got to see his Bronze Star up close and in person...we all knew he was doing a great job down there this year without so much as a complaint, and it was humbling to see his accomplishments recognized in such a formal (and completely unexpected) way. We did as we had planned long ago and went for Greek food on his first night home, which was delicious! Despite breaking out our new crock pot the next day (a 1st anniversary gift from my mom: thanks, mom!) we still elected to hit another favorite restaurant in town where we discovered his favorite dish had been cut from the menu during the last year. Fortunately for M., the waitress remembered him and thought she could probably arrange for his favorite dish as a 'welcome home' dinner. And she did, just for M. It's been a busy week, but a highly, highly anticipated one. And, tonight, we both go to sleep in Europe, far away from the sand...and it is sweet, indeed.