Coming home

A year is too long a time for me to plan for. A year is only a good length of time for remembering. And sometimes not even then. Sometimes a year ago turns out to be foggy memories cobbled together from photos taken and words written and emotions felt. A year is forever in the life of a young child and a second in the eye of his mother.

With that in mind I thought I needed to write down our experience of coming home. It felt magical I tell you. The kids did so well in the plane. Lee even made a few flight attendants laugh. Daniel had been home a week and had Saturday, the day before we were coming off. He cleaned the house and organized the fridge and coat closet and our bedroom closet. And he went grocery shopping.

Flying home to him reminds me of our 7 month engagement spent almost entirely apart. We flew to see each other. I get off the plane and walk. This time I had my hands completely full so even Lee had to walk. It was very slow with heavy lifting from everyone. Our plane came in at the farthest gate from baggage claim so we rode a few walkways, but mostly we slowly made our way to baggage claim. With every step my anticipation grew. He had said he was running late so I didn't anticipate him being there. We made it to our spot and dropped our bags and suddenly he was there wrapping the kids in a big hug. Receiving presents from Charlotte and taking my load from me. I am always surprised at the level of happy I feel coming home to him though I guess I shouldn't be by now.

We made it home and I walked in the door of my house and was confronted with the comforts of home instead of the inevitable mess we always seem to leave it in. It was like a real vacation without the extra work tacked on behind. Then we all unpacked together leisurely with jokes and laughter.

Today I was able to spend inside with the kids taking down Christmas because of him. We played and made cookies and got everything boxed up all at once. That wouldn't have been possible without his work. I work hard to make so many things in his life work. And he does the same for me. So that's something worth remembering.