He's not in Afghanistan anymore

Paul is officially out of Afghanistan.  I'm not exactly sure when he'll arrive here, but it should be sometime in the next three days, I would think.  We are setting up the banners for him this afternoon when the kids get home from school.  We have one banner for our balcony, and the other one we'll place out on the fenceline along the route the busses will take into post.

This one goes on our Balcony (making it obvious whom we're talking about).  The one that goes on the fenceline is homemade, with Paul's army name on it, along with the kid's handprints and such.

It's been an incredibly long year without him.  There were days I thought it would take forever, and now it's just a few days away until we are united. So exciting and so frustrating (I've never been particularly patient).  I think I've learned a lot over this last year, not the least of which is that this is a "forever love."   I've seen my kids mature so much over this past 12 months, and seen all of them become taller than me.  You wouldn't think that a year in their lives at this age would produce so much change... but it has.  I wonder how much of those changes Paul will notice... how much of those changes will go dormant once he's home and we all slowly settle back into our "comfort" zone.

So, anyway...  I'm on standby here at home.. I don't want to leave the phone unattended since they (rear detachment) will call as soon as they know that Paul is 12-24 hours from home.  See you all later.