Counting Down

It seems as though I blinked my eyes and found myself here. Where is here? Here is the ability to count the HOURS until my reunion with my husband. As with all things in my life lately, this, too, seems surreal. I don't yet fully believe that I will be hugging him in the near future.. but there is certainly a part of me that believes it. Or, atleast, believes something is going to be happening in the near future. I know this because I have this constant anxious knot in the pit of my stomach. This is the knot that keeps me from sleeping in in the morning (boo!).

I was talking to a fellow wife today, and she was telling me the woes of all the different wives rushing around to prepare for the homecoming. And, I said, "We've had 7 months to prepare for this day, yet somehow it managed to sneak up on us anyway." The truth of it is that it was the fires. Time sped by and life picked up and before I knew it I was receiving a call from my husband telling me he had officially left Iraqi soil. If I think about that too long and too hard, I'm sure to start crying. But, I don't seem to have time for tears at the moment.. so I will just rejoice in the knowledge that he will be home with me soon.

Life is a crazy thing. Seven months at times seemed neverending. But, now, looking back, it doesn't seem that seven months could possibly have passed since I hugged him goodbye in April.

Going into this deployment, I was most afraid of living this life alone. And while it certainly has been no picnic, I have found that strength that I hoped I would. I believe I have changed.. and grown.. a great deal over these months. I believe Hubby has as well. For the past 6 years (and then some) we have done all of our growing together. This was an interesting time where we did that growing apart. We both faced challenges of great magnitude that we were forced to deal with on our own terms. When he comes home, I have no doubt that we will easily pick up where we left off and continue our growing together once more.

I wonder if I will cry when I hug him for the first time. I wonder if there will be anything about him that I had briefly forgotten, anything that will take me by surprise at first. I wonder if he will look different to me.. I wonder if he will sound different.. I wonder if there will be a new word that he uses often... or a new joke that he likes to laugh about. I wonder if we will have so many things to say that we won't know where to begin.. I wonder if we will just automatically fall into our normal relationship or if things will be "polite" for a little while. I wonder so many things. I am so filled with excitement and anxiousness. I am ready for this homecoming though, so very ready.

So what if the pool is still black, the grass needs mowed, and the cars need washed. I have a feeling that there could be trash all over the floor and dirty laundry hanging from the lights and Hubby wouldn't even notice. He will be so excited to be back at his home with his dogs and his wife that nothing else will matter. :O)