Welcome Home!

"I don't know about this light," Andy said, adjusting the camera strap across his shoulder. "It's going to be hard to get the right angle."

"Really?" My voice was loud and bright. "I think the clouds are beautiful. They should be a metaphor for something."

"What do you mean," Andy asked, lifting Penelope's stroller over a crack in the sidewalk.

I squeezed Katherine's hand, signaling for her to follow him, and then I stepped carefully behind them. My high-heeled boots weren't meant for this uneven pavement.

"I mean --- just look at them! They're so dark over there, stormy and churning, but you don't even have to turn your head to block them out. Just shift your eyes slightly in that direction and everything is blue and clear and cloudless; the sun is shining. It's a beautiful day, right on top of the USS George Washington."

"You know the clouds are moving toward the ship though, don't you?"

"What?"

"Yeah, it'll be cloudy over there in just a minute. Don't you feel the way the wind is blowing?"

"Oh, no, I guess not." I stumbled in my boots and smiled down at Katherine. "Well, if I ever write about this, then I guess I'll have to change the wind's direction. The last thing I need right now is some kind of ominous, cloud-covered foreshadowing to blow in and mess up my metaphor for a happy ending."

Andy laughed. "You should probably just ignore it. Don't worry, we'll get a good picture."

***

That man is handsome, I thought, scanning the crowd for Chris. He was standing at the gate, bending over a wheelchair, and nodding seriously at an old woman who had a crowd of men around her.

"I'm sorry, Penny, but you're just too heavy," I said. "I'm going to have to put you down for a second while we wait for Daddy." I shifted her off my hip and scanned the crowd, again, for Chris.

Katherine tucked her hand inside my hand. She was nervous, she'd confessed, and her eyes were wide and round; quiet and searching.

Across the way, the man looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back in the happy, impersonal way I'd smiled at a dozen other arriving sailors, but then I thought again, that man is handsome.

He held my eyes.

I blinked and looked at him. He held my eyes for just a second longer and something clicked into focus. My vision zoomed out and my perspective widened. That handsome man is Chris, I shouted in my head. That man's my husband! And before I could open my mouth to say girls, that's Daddy! Katherine shrieked, no longer quiet and wide-eyed and searching, and both the girls ran toward him.

I nodded at the woman in the wheelchair, glad the girls were pulling Chris away from her and toward them, but in that moment I wasn't thinking about sunlight or shadows or metaphors or angles or the future. I was just thinking about the way Chris's arms were going to feel around my waist, and the way my cheek was going to fit against his shoulder, and the way the girls seemed to find their place with him so easily.

And it worked ---

His smile scattered the clouds like a sunburst and melted away months of tension.

He's home, you guys.

He's home.

...and, this time, I think he's going to stay.

Welcome back, love!

{Make sure you head over to Andy's site to see more sweet pictures from homecoming, okay? He captured so many families, so many happy moments (including a father holding his new baby for the very first time), and so many reasons to be thankful this holiday season. My family was honored to be part of the experience. Thank you, Andy!}