He's home!!

I got the phone call at 0450 that said, “Mrs. Rud, your husband is on his way home from Iraq.” Even though I had been expecting the phone call, it was a very crazy thing to hear. I asked where I needed to be and when and he said they would do a 2nd phone call once they had landed in Ramstein (30 mins from Baumholder) to tell when and where to be. Once they got to Ramstein the troops still had to drop off their weapon so it was still 2-3 hours from their landing time till they were at the Welcome Home ceremony. I got out of bed and didn’t really know what to do with myself after the phone call. I tried cleaning, but quickly found I really had nothing left to clean. So at 0515 decided to get the guacamole ready for Josh (that and whiskey were his two requests upon his return). After the guacamole I decided it was best to go into work for a couple hours .I knew that I needed to stay occupied otherwise the next few hours were going to go by very slowly. I got into work and after talking to a few people found out they had landed…very shortly after I got the call to be at the main gym at 11 am. I grabbed Jean (she wanted to come and see all the troops….she knew some of them pretty well since Lorintz was their Platoon Leader for the main part of the deployment) and we were off. Jean kept telling me that she was getting nervous for me. I surprisingly stayed very calm until they began clearing the children off the gym floor. “American Soldier” by Toby Keith started blasting and the 400 soldiers came marching into the gym. I spotted him and thought to myself that I had completely forgot how handsome he was. It was a pretty crazy moment….pretty sure it was the longest time my skin held goosebumps for. Afterwards, they played the German anthem followed by the American anthem. They said a pray, told the troops to be safe and released them. There were about 6 other people there to wish him a welcome back. A couple of my friends from work and a few of the other LT’s that he came in with. After we said hello, I introduced him to a lot of people (they had came from work to welcome them back and some other guys had friends coming in on the flight).

Once we got home, we sat on the couch and talked. It was pretty awesome because for the first time I could actually hear what he did everyday. While he was downrange he could not share very much with me….it drove me crazy. But hearing stories yesterday made it worth the wait. I will have to make him write a blog just so he can give you a little insight. Once we were done talking we went and made a drink, grabbed my tub of guacamole and went outside to a picnic table and played cribbage. He won both games…..and I was not a happy camper. Afterwards we came back here for a little bit, took a nap, snuggled a lot :) and talked some more. Later I walked him over to the neighbors to introduce him and then I took us on a drive. Germany is absolutely gorgeous right now.

I will admit that I didn’t think it would feel this great to have him back. I really did forget how in love with the bouy I was. I became pretty independent in these past 4 months but if that bouy were to leave me again tomorrow I would be right back at the 1st day of his deployment and feel like a lost little puppy. He makes me very happy and this whole crazy adventure of taking me to Germany had it’s highest point yesterday when I got to give him a hug….distance can do crazy things to one’s life! :)

So I had to let you all know that Joshua is home! I think I am the happiest I have been since being here....and for a while I didn't think life could get much better....yesterday, it did.