Grant and John Relaxing

Grant and John Relaxing
Originally uploaded by mensik_baker.

I am sitting here in kuwait right now waiting on a flight back into Iraq so I thought I would take a moment to reflect on my leave. It was an amazing experience to be back together with Marissa and Grant. The first time my son said Daddy was one of the best moments of my life, this was followed by the first time my son reached up to me to hold my hand or to be picked up by me. Those moments were incredible and never failed to bring me to tears of joy. I had the added joy of being able to hold Marissa after so long apart. I had missed so much the simple joys of a hug, a kiss and waking up next to the one you love. The moment I saw her at the airport was amazing as were all these little moments and I will not forget the indescribable joy that I felt for the rest of my life. Like everything else in the Army there is allways a down side to something and being home on leave is no different. It is hard to describe how it is possible to feel so much joy and so much pain at the same time but that is how it is on leave. The moments were all filled with emotion because after getting back our family we were aware that we would have to say goodbye again. IT SUCKED...no other way to describe that feeling. We are on the downhill slope of this deployment though and I know the end is in sight. It will be so good to finally be home for good, it doesnt even matter where that home is as long as we are together.

Thank you so much to everyone who gave Marissa and I the space and time to be together as a family. I know that you wanted to spend more time with us but I appreciate you letting us just be alone together as much as possible. Special thanks go to Rick and especially my Mom. I know that it was hard for you both to not spend more time with us and that you put your wishes aside so that Marissa, Grant and I could just be a normal familly for awhile. Thank you very much for giving us a wonderful time together. I also want to send out an apoligy to Kathy and Bear. I had intended to call you to say thank you for all that you have done to support me but I forgot about it the minute I saw Marissa and Grant. You are in my thoughts and I am sorry I did not call. All of you are in my thoughts and I love you all very much.