Thursday, March 15, 2007

IRONY...

Did I say I loved irony? My printer quit working again tonight....how's that for irony? The appliances are going to continue the revolt until the bitter end.

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

I got a call this a.m. from Ch. S in Ramstein AB, Germany. He let me know that Mike had been through there and was on his way to the States.

We got home from the park and Jamin had talked to Mike. He is in America. I believe he is in Baltimore. He'll be in tomorrow at 11:25 a.m. Any local folks that want to be at the airport are welcome to be there. Kelli and Heather have volunteered to come at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow and help sort produce. They may end up sorting it all so that I can make sure children are properly attired and out the door. They'll also handle pick up time for me and lock up the house.

YIPPEE!!!! This is too good to communicate via email..... Below are the posts I've not been publishing all week because Mike's return was classified until he landed in America.

THURSDAY

We're waiting for a call from Mike to say that he is back in America and to tell us when he is coming home for sure. There is simply no way the little ones are going to be able to focus on the Civil Rights Movement today. I set them the task of cleaning their rooms. I'm not fretting my to do list any longer, it really is not going to matter to Mike if I have the garage, the yard and the van clean. He's not going to be terribly upset if the cheesecake doesn't arrive until next week. He won't be upset that I didn't get all the fix it jobs done - he'll know he's needed...dreadfully...around here.

In the midst of cleaning I found Arielle crying in her room. She was feeling what I was feeling, "The girls should be here." It was one of those "ahhhh" moments when Stacia wandered in and gave Arielle a big hug. Of course, by the time I got the camera she was done patting and was brining the hug thing to a close. LOL
Our plan is to work until lunch. Have lunch and then go spend an hour in the park with Tricia and her girls. We need a diversion.

EXCITEMENT

Stacia has no clue what the excitement is all about, but she is willing to play along with us and claps and cheers every night when we remove a link of our homecoming chain.

Our Countdown Chain....

We finally decided how we want to end the chain...we bought a big Kiss and attached the chain to it....We'll let Mike take the last chain off and it will be his gift. Zander is determined we need FLAGS on the chain...so I stuck some flags in the KISS box.

Tuesday/Wednesday (13, 14 March)

We're playing a new game around here. Zander runs up and hugs me and then pulls back and says, "you're not my Daddy - but my Daddy is coming." We are getting so excited.

Heard from Mike today and his journey HOME has begun!!!! I'm walking around with a HUGE grin on my face.

Here is a more recent picture of our countdown chain.....

Banners....

We've been discussing where to place our welcome home banners for maximum effect. Zander says we should put the "flag" on the airplane wing and "Wala - Dad is home". He also thinks we should put the other banner on the side of the "bus" (RV Trailer) and drive it to the airport...and "Wala - everyone will see Dad home."

Banner I ordered online....

Banner from local store

The excitement builds

We can't wait for Mike to be home.

Mr. Miserable is full of smiles these days. I only have to say, "Zander, Dad will be home in 4 days," and the most amazing smile brightens his face. Gotta admit we are all beaming quite a bit this week.

After geocaching today, Josiah, Arielle, Nolan, Zander and I stopped in at the Card and Party shop. We ordered two big balloon bouquets and 30 more balloons. We'll pick them up on Thursday night. Friday a.m. is going to be busy with produce co-op and a plane to meet...but we plan to decorate early.

We're all getting VERY excited. Once again, I find it hard to sleep. I realized tonight that I'm NOT going to be able to bake the welcome home cheesecake in my oven if they don't fix it for another 7 days....ARGH.

SUNDAY (11 Mar) - DAD is coming home!

How precious it is to sit hear in the library and overhear Arielle, Nolan and Zander talk about Mike coming home. Four more days...."He's going to walk into the door and we are all going to scream and jump all over him". Ah I love these children and their dad.

They don't seem to realize that we are NOT going to wait passively at home for Dad to walk through the door! LOL

Josiah is desperately trying to get the time off to meet Mike at the airport, but the time keeps changing...and he's coming in during spring break. I'm praying that this works out so that Josiah can be at the airport with us. Today at lunch he told us the story of Mike's return from Hungary. I went to the airport to pick up Mike - I have no IDEA why I didn't take all the children (oh, there was a huge ice/snow storm, I was very pregnant with Nolan and we were advised not to drive - his boss picked me up and drove me to the airport). The children hid and planned to jump out screaming when we walked in the door. Josiah chose to hide in the front closet. Mike walked in, was attacked from all sides, dropped his bag (in front of the closet) and Josiah was inside pounding and trying to get out while he heard all the other children welcoming Mike home. I didn't remember this. I shared it with Mike and he didn't remember either. We are going to do all we can to make sure this young man gets to welcome Mike home front and center THIS time. ::snort::

We have a little chain that we are taking rings off of every night...only four more rings left!!!!

PRAYER REQUEST

Dad is not doing well again. He had that last surgery a week ago. Had the 8 (or maybe 10?) units of blood. They released him to rehab a couple of days ago. The rehab just called Mom and they are transporting him to the ER. He is ashen again. He's projectile vomiting. Has blood in his urine (but tests are fine). I have no clue what this could be this time....Please pray. Today is his birthday.

AND re: all those comments...I'm going to assume that you have all read my blog long enough to know that your comments are appreciated but I'm truly NOT superwoman etc. It's totally the grace of God that keeps me going...I'm super wimp. Frankly, the whole "super mom of a large family" thing is a myth....NONE of us are superwoman....God's grace and strength are available to us all....Thank you, Lord....and so I gather all your gracious comments and offer them to my Lord and Savior as a fragrant bouquet. He's the one who sustains, enlivens and energizes us....equips us for the calling of mother and wife.