Welcome Home Joe!

I cry.

Real men love Jesus, their wives, their parents, their children, their family, and they cry.  I must be a real man.  I am crying now.  Big deal.  I'm still so happy that it's hard to contain my emotions.

I am not ashamed to cry; and although I don't do it very often, when it happens, it is hard to stop.  Yesterday was one such example of happy tears, and they were flowing freely.

I was deeply saddened and cried in private when my baby girl wept on my shoulders during Joe's departure 231 days ago.  It was the same kind of sadness and weeping that I experienced after the OKC bombing when I felt the explosion in my body from a safe distance of 8 miles away.  The same kind of sadness after 9/11, the same kind of sadness with the deaths of Grandpa, Papaw, and Nanny.

Yesterday was happy tears though.  It was all I could do to hold it together in the lobby standing with the 100's of other family members.  And then when we saw these men walking down the hall, the claps and cheers started; and that's when I lost it. 

Relief.  It was finally over.  Joe was home.  Alive.  With all of his body parts intact.  I truly hope, with every fiber of my being, that this is the last time he will have been deployed.

I am proud of Joe, proud that he is willing to serve our country, and proud that he is my son in law, and loves my daughter, and loves my two grand-daughters.  But, I still want him home.  For good.

I love you Joe.  Welcome home. 

- Dad