Pictures of Homecoming Ceremony

Welcome home MARKY!

Welcome HOME Mark sign hung on the front of our house. "Welcome Home Mark- Husband, Best friend, and Hero." First time we will both be permanent residents together there!

Together in formation waiting to be released. Complete with the soldiers who came home early due to injury.

Just seeing them put me in tears. I couldn't spot Mark in the sea of uniforms- but I knew he was somewhere in that room!

Our plan for me to wear a yellow dress for him to spot me was a success. He found me- and that first hug and kiss was quite possibly the best moment of my life thus far.

I can't even explain our smiles in this photo- so incredibly happy.

Since homecoming we have been enjoying our time together at home. I have someone to cook dinners for again (or someone rather to help me cook dinners and clean up!). We have laid pretty low the last few days- just enjoying the lazy company together.

Thank you family and friends for your love and support over the last year. It helped make the year more manageable and I know Mark and I both appreciated the continuous outpouring of encouragement and prayers. And with that- this will likely be the last blog post hopefully for at least a few years.

Much Love,

Angie

I'm Home!

Dear friends and family,

I’m home! Many thanks for all of your love and support over the last year. You made my deployment much easier. It was a busy last few weeks as we received and prepared the new unit to replace us. We gave them everything we had and worked hard until our very last day. The road home took me several days and I finally flew in late on the evening of the 16th and arrived at home very early on the morning of the 17th. Angie was there to welcome me home along with one of her friends who she recruited as the team photographer. It was great to see both of them.

I am absolutely in love with Washington. It has been right around 70 degrees. A great departure from the 119 degrees I heard reported in the weather report for Kandahar two days after we left. The grass is green here, the streets are clean, and most of all I have Angie here with me. It has been simply wonderful. I will have two weeks of reintegration, classes, and doctors/dental checkups and then will start some much awaited block leave (vacation)! We don’t have any big plans. Things will be mostly relaxed. We have a friend’s wedding to attend in Wisconsin and I will spend some time with the family there. Other than that we will do a few small trips around Washington and Oregon and hopefully one to the east coast. Thanks again for your support. It feels great to be home. I cannot wait until I can see you in person.

Regards, Mark

Second LAST blog post

Hello everyone,

SECOND LAST BLOG POST for this deployment! I couldn't be more thrilled to share that. My communication with Mark the last 3 weeks has been sparse to say the least. He has been extremely busy and has gotten very little sleep. I have gotten a few short e-mails here and there- but most of them say the same thing. I love you, I miss you, it's hot, and I'm tired. He has shared that he has been averaging 2-3 hours a sleep a night for the last 3 weeks or so. And while he has tried taking naps during the afternoon- the attempts are usually unsuccessful due to the tents being so hot from not having air conditioning in the summer heat.

However, with that being said as each of these 3 weeks has passed I can tell he is more and more tired- but the morale is getting higher and higher as he knows he will soon be home! That thought I'm sure has helped to keep him going.

He shared in an e-mail late last week the good news that their replacements have arrived! The long hours continue but "it's what has to be done to get out of here." We have gotten word of a 3 day window for their arrival home. I can't share exact details of that online for safety reasons- but do know the next post that will be on here is pictures of homecoming! I cannot be more thrilled and more excited. This year is almost over!

Love

Angie