Even if it's not me...

I am a sucker for reunions. Have you ever seen that show "The Locator"? It gets me every time when I see long lost siblings, children, or friends reunited. What is even better, is seeing military families come together after long deployment. Tonight I had the pleasure of going to the airport to capture photographs of quite a few friends of mine as they hugged their Marine for the first time in 6 months.

My good friend Laura's husband Matt is one of John's best friends here. He was where John is now, luckily they had a few weeks to hang out before Matt headed back here. Ridiculous, I know.

I arrived at the airport to see so many anxious faces and signs that said "Welcome Home" and "We love you". My heart leaped! I love this stuff!

The worst part about the airport in Okinawa is there is a HUGE glass wall that separates you from the passengers waiting for their bags. It can be torture when you have waited to long to see someone, then you finally do, but you still have to wait for them to come through those doors! After what seemed like forever, our Marines walked out the door to cheers and claps! Wives and children ran to get that first hug and kiss. My heart just melted!

Eventhough it was not me who was welcoming home my hero, I am so happy for all of them and I know my day will come soon!

My 50th Blog!

Well, I can't believe I have had enough to say to write 50 blogs! What better way to celebrate than to wish a happy 234th birthday to the United States Marine Corps! Happy Birthday Marines! Thank you for all you do to protect us. Of course thanks to the the other services, but I am a little partial to the Marine Corps!

I decided to go to this year's Birthday Ball even though John isn't here.

The commanding Officer of our squadron (who is also our next door neighbor!) invited me and the other wives with deployed spouses to the ball as his guests. So I figured why not, I always welcome a good excuse to dress up! My friend Christina, our squadron's Family Readiness Officer was my date. It was her last event before she moved in a week. Her husband is a Marine so they are on their way out of here. She's the one in the cream dress. My friend Rebecca and me.

My favorite part of every ball is when the young guys get out there and strut their stuff! This year was no disappointment! They crack me up!

Apparently the Executive Officer took pity on me and we did some Two-steppin'. I am sure he assumed since I am from Texas that I would be a pro. Not so much, but I have gotten better after working on it with John since he is great at it! We were pretty much the only ones on the dance floor because these 18 and 19 years olds had no idea what to do with country music!

I have had surprisingly a lot of support since John has been gone. My faith has been restored in the kindness of others. I honestly believed that because I am living in such a HUGE military community where almost everyone's husband (or wife) deploys, that the attitude would be "Well my husband is gone, or has been gone a lot too, so suck it up". But I haven't experience much of that. The first few days after he left I felt so much love and support, and for that I am so thankful.
My loving co-workers even left a "We love you Andrea" note on my desk along with literally mounds of candy piled on my desk and chair! Granted, there was so much candy in my office that had been donated to the church for the Fall Festival, they had quite a bit to work with. Don't worry, we finally got rid of the left overs so we would stop eating it!
Our church recently opened our new playground, so the staff decided to get out there and be the first to try it out!

The pastor is on the left with our crazy associate pastor in the slide!

Thanks again everyone for all of your love and support!