The End.

A little less than a year ago I downloaded a deployment countdown onto my desktop, so I could keep track of this year's progress. I set the return home date for one year exactly which would mean according to my countdown Stonewall will be home in 40 minutes.

Unfortunately, that is not accurate.

He will be home in 40 minutes and 11 hours.

In less than 12 hours this year will be over. This sometimes horrible, sometimes wonderful, always uncertain year will come to an end and my husband will finally walk through our front door.

I know I kind of left everyone who was reading Twitter on Tuesday hanging. Stonewall made it back to US soil on Tuesday (looks like Murphy was spot on) and we were able to spend a wonderful hour with him in Ft. Dix. That hour definitely made my Top Ten Favorite Hours Ever.

Part of the fun was that Stonewall did not know we were going to be there to greet him on Tuesday. The look on his face when he saw us for the first time and he realized his family was there to greet him home was priceless. He just lit up and gave us the biggest smile and started waving at Lil' Mootz. We saw him say to the soldier beside him, "There's my boy!" It was really an amazing moment.

When they finally broke away from formation, I don't think we could get to each other fast enough. For the first time in nine months my husband was standing in front of me and he was beautiful and so handsome. Hugging him, he felt like my husband, kissing him, he tasted like my husband and leaning against him, he smelled like my husband. He was everything I tried so hard to remember this past year.

Lil' Mootz wasn't quite as enthusiastic as I was. About 15 minutes before the soldiers showed up Lil' Mootz got tired and grumpy. He took a very short nap before I woke him up because we could see the soldiers coming across the parking lot. He was very unsure about Stonewall at first. And Stonewall was unsure about Lil' Mootz. The last time he had seen his son Lil' Mootz was 9 pounds and a newborn. You could tell Stonewall was still in that newborn mode and Lil' Mootz, I think, could sense Stonewall's hesitation.

Towards the end of the hour though Stonewall was making Lil' Mootz laugh. Lil' Mootz was also mimicking Stonewall and blowing raspberries. I have no doubt that within two weeks the two of them will be like peas and carrots.

It wasn't nearly as hard to say good-bye once the hour was up since we knew we would be seeing each other again within days. Since Tuesday I've been trying to get things in order at work and to get our house clean because I knew any day Stonewall would be calling to say he was coming home. This evening Stonewall called and said he would be home tomorrow.

Another deployment successfully completed and finally over. Like I said in my post the other day this past year has been such a roller coaster. It was absolutely miserable at times and it was also full of completely wonderful moments.

I'm a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. Even though a deployment 5 days after Lil' Mootz was born, well, sucked, I know that there was a reason for it and somewhere along the way we'll realize that reason. We both already know we learned a lot about ourselves this past year and we'll figure out sooner or later why we were meant to know the things we know now.

I'm heading off to bed now for my last night sleeping alone. Holy macaroni! It is such a crazy/awesome feeling knowing that!