It won't be long before I'm home again. As the end draws closer I think more and more of the things I've missed from home. When I'm talking with the other docs we ask each other silly questions like, "What's the food you miss the most" or, "Where will you go on vacation when you get home?". Then conversation turns to "What will you be glad to never see or hear again?!?". When the conversation is over I think of the little things I miss about home. I miss reading bedtime stories to Kerrigan. I miss walking barefoot over the cool kitchen floor in my pajamas in the early morning before everyone wakes up (as opposed to never barefoot anywhere, never in pajamas, no kitchen and somebody always awake in my hut). I miss sitting in our big chair with Leigh Anne. I miss music without headphones and I miss running through farms and down by the river. I miss sitting in church with Lily on my lap. I miss carrying Joshua when he's asleep and seeing his constant giant grin when he's awake. I miss tickling the kids! I miss the silence and calm of mornings outside.
Absence does make the heart grow fonder! It seems like seeing home from so far away somehow helps me to see it all so much clearer. I appreciate family and home now more than ever before. I'm glad to be alive and I'm grateful to be healthy. I'm excited to come home. I remember how it felt when I was younger to really want to have things or to go places or achieve seemingly unattainable goals or to really be insanely in love with some girl I hardly knew. Those desires seemed so strong. But it all seems so weak compared to how I YEARN for home now.
These are a few of my favorite pictures from deployment. This is what I miss most. I love my family.
