Monday Memories - Coming Home

Abe, Grace, and Henry came over to spend the weekend with us.  One of the things I encourage the kids to do while they're home is to go out on a date while they have good, free babysitters. Calvin and I watched Henry the first night and then the next night Calvin, Grace, and Abe went to a movie and I watched him.  Both nights Henry woke up after they'd been gone for a couple of hours.  He sat contentedly on my lap as we rocked and watched The Piano Guys play "Bring Him Home" (second video below) over and over and over.  It's a soothing lullaby.  As we rocked, I thought of Abe's deployments and experiences from those deployments.  I was grateful that he had returned home safely twice - once from Iraq and once from Afghanistan, and thought of other mothers who had wished for the same.

When I saw this video from the BYU home game played on September 11 (first video below), I wondered how many more deployments our family has in the future, and (thinking of current world conditions) where those deployments will be.  (Ty is just finishing pilot training and it won't be long until we will wait for him to come home as well.)

Sweet.  Sad.  There are some of both in the memories.  While patriotism seems to wax and wane in our country, the military still goes away and comes home whether they're appreciated and celebrated or not. And no matter how many times I say it, it's still not enough, but thank you to everyone who serves and allows us to come home each night and make good memories in a safe place.