Welcome Home, My Dear

My dear sweet Martin finally made it back! After 19 days away from us, he returns safe and sound.

I love surprises, so anyone who knows me WON'T be surprised by the fact that Margaret and I drove up to Portland to SURPRISE the boys as they deboarded their plane at the airport. It was awesome! I felt like a school girl again all nervous and freaking out. I didn't know where to stand... should we hide and jump out? Should we hide and walk up behind them and pinch their butts? Should we just stand there and look like dorks?? Decisions...decisions...

Regardless of where we stood, those boys sure were shocked to see us there. It was so fun! We had perma grins the rest of the day. (I only wish I'd had my camera and had it set to video so a bystander could video tape the whole encounter.)

Here they are at baggage claim and at the end of their amazing adventure:

And here we all are picking up the car at my mom's house:

(see that perma grin I'm sporting??)

The whole drive home, we kept getting calls from the girls.

"Are you close?"

"How much longer?"

"Where are you guys??"

They were a tad excited to see their Daddy.

Olivia was so excited, there were a few tears shed.

We had three separate reunions.

Mine.

The girls'.

The babies'.

Christian and Delaney had spent the day at my friend, Jennifer's, so after the girls had their reunion with Dad, I went and picked up the little ones. It was nice for Martin to not be super bombarded with all four at once, I guess. Or should I say, all FIVE!! (including ME)

Delaney didn't completely recognize her Daddy. She did... but she didn't. So she just cuddled into him and wouldn't look at him. She layed against his chest for quite some time before coming up for air. It was too dang cute.

Finally coming up for air:

Life is getting back to normal now with him home. I took a loooooooong nap Friday - sorta checked out knowing my teammate was back in action.

Gosh, I'm happy to have him home, but also so glad he had this once in a lifetime opportunity to explore & travel & spend such quality time with Greg. I haven't seen pics yet, as Greg has the memory cards and I am itching to get my hands on them.

Martin has shared several stories so far and the time they had there was incredible. There is no way for him to completely depict everything he experienced in a way that I'll understand. Those are his memories and are near impossible for me to appreciate fully. So I will read his journal and hope to catch a brief glimpse into his adventure.

He is home.

He is safe.

Life is good.