Homecoming

Tommy is home at last from Germany! Tonight we picked him up at the airport. Jared and Haley waited impatiently to see the uncle who is not much older than they are (Haley is 12, Jared 16, and Tommy is 21).
















He looks great--fit, built and happy to be home. What a joy to see his face again--even though we spoke on the phone every week, there is nothing to compare with seeing someone you love in person. (yeah, he's stooping over his two short parents!)





Jared, Hannah and Tommy--what a difference a few years makes in a kid's size. Hannah is such a little bird. Jared is actuall about 2 inches taller than Tom, although it doesn't show here.


Now everyone is settled down for the night. Air mattresses have been inflated, the stove and fireplace loaded for the night, blankets, sheets and pillows found, lights out. The house is quiet and I can think about having our youngest son home again.



I wonder how he'll find the adjustment from Air Force barracks to a very quiet, solitary house in the country. He was raised here, but off and on for the past few years has been living in other places where there is a lot more people and activity. Here, he'll see the occasional deer, plenty of birds, the dogs, and the mailman and school bus passing on the road a quarter of a mile away. That's pretty much it for a day's activity.


He has plans, of course. College, a job, maybe an apartment. So his stay here is likely to be limited. We'll enjoy having him for this time, and I sort of think he'll enjoy getting out again when he gets his ducks lined up. He's tried a few things already--a short college stint, welding, driller, the Air Force. Always his passion was fitness, and now he's determined to make that his career. How? Stay tuned...