Our hard day

He is on his way now. Yesterday Michael left for UAE. It was a difficult day for us. He had to be at the base by 2pm. The kiddos skipped nap time and we went to see Daddy off. Turned out 2 o'clock held a few briefs and then the families could come back again. The kids and I headed off to a good friend of mine Michelle's house (her hubby is going with Mike) and we waited until we could see the guys again. An hour and a half later we were back with them. We headed off to Burger King to let the kiddos play while we chatted. That's our family photo at the BK playpark. At 5:30 Michael had to be back so off we went and we were able to stay with him for another 20 minutes or so. Then it was time to say good-bye:





As the guys did one final headcount, the kids and I went outside and waited to see Daddy one more time. For almost an hour the kiddos were running up and down this hill as we wasted time.



The guys eventually came out and we watched Daddy get on his bus. So many emotions right then, I was SO proud of Michael and his dedication to this country. So very proud of him. And of course I was sad, sad for all the things he will miss out this summer, sad he will miss these next few months of Josie's growing up, babies change so fast and by Sept she will be a different baby. Sad that he will miss the rest of t-ball and Luke's 6th birthday. He will miss the start of Pre-K for Kaden and Luke's Kindergarten. And I was sad for all of us, sad that we will not have Daddy around and I will not have my husband. The mission is so important and I realize that we as a country need Michael over in UAE, we need him to do his job to help our troops and keep us safe here at home. Let's pray for all our military and our leaders. Pray, pray, pray---they need it.

(In the first picture Michael is on the left with a black backpack on and a paper sticking out of the leg pocket on his flight suit, in the second he is standing on the right in between the 2 trees right above Luke's head.)

One more thing---out of the mouth of babes as they say: When we pulled up at 2 o'clock I was trying so hard not to cry and stay positive for Michael and for the kiddos. Luke was asking why Daddy had to leave. Michael said it's because his job is over there right now. I told Luke to look for everyone in brown because they were all going away together. Luke started to cry and said "There's too many of them Mom, there's too many families." And I thought how right you are, we have thousands and thousands of troops in the middle east, thousands and thousands of family members left behind, and that's when I cried.