
This is a fun photo of TJ and his good friend John (who will, Lord willing, be coming to NBBC next semester) next to Arnold.
If you're interested in some of the lovely details of yesterday when I got to be with him after they touched down, here's some of the story:
I got there 2 hours early and set up a chair right in front of the rope that separated us from the plane our soldiers would be on. Reporters were everywhere and people slowly started filling up the space we were given.
The wait was long. Over the next 2 hours random things kept us occupied: Some people behind me started a poker game, a proud father set up a chair next to mine and told me how he would blow his duck call loud so his son could find him, some business gave us all free ice cream while a military band played songs randomly, and I had fun chatting with a friendly grandmother of one of the soldiers with me during our wait.
The weather kept getting colder. I felt bad because I knew the soldiers were going to be freezing once they got off the plane.
Finally we saw the aircraft and everyone started to go crazy. Emotions were uncontrollable. It landed...then took forever for them to let the soldiers off. They couldn't come see us right away because they had to turn in their weapons first. Finally small groups of them were released to see their families...they would walk toward us through darkness until the lights showed us their faces...then you'd hear random screams from the crowd for soldiers people knew. After 45 minutes of desperately searching the soldiers faces to find TJ's, I spotted him. The next hour was one of the sweetest hours of my life. I can't even describe how relieved I felt to be back in his arms again.
After about and hour of happy reunions they were loaded up in busses to go finish debriefing, but they will be back with us soon. Thank God for bringing my wonderful husband home safe! I love you, TJ.