waiting, waiting, waiting

Long day ahead of us, just waiting at the motel...may as well sunbathe!

...and play chickenfoot.  We caught the bird hitting the bottle.

Donnie won, and Fran didn't easily relinquish the bird.

We went to Target for a little shopping to kill some more time.  Ellie loves her new sneakers, I think!

Emily scored some new heels for graduation :)  I actually enjoyed a little shopping myself.  Shopping for the sake of shopping is usually not my thing, but today I got two new dresses for work and two new bathing suits.  One can never have enough bathing suits when living on the boat- it is your 'daily wear'!

Late in the afternoon, Donnie decided to brave a polar bear dip in the freezing a** hurts-your-head-its-so-cold-water.  That took up all of about 10 seconds....and we were still waiting...

A bit later Fran had the good idea to make signs to welcome Carissa home...

...so we did, and that took up all of ten minutes.  *sigh*  We're still waiting...

We were like birds on a wire, waiting by the front door.  At least we all had each other while we waited...poor Carissa.  She was having a grueling 72 hour + trip with multiple delays without the company of family to keep her entertained.  Ugh.

Just after 7:30pm, look who came walking through the door!

It was a surreal moment, y'all!!!  If you want to get your tears jerked, go to my FB page (P Karyn Kiester McDaniel) to see the moment we had been waiting, waiting, waiting for on video.

Daddy deserved the first hug!

She was totally shocked to see the little girls!  She thought they were in Nashville.  Mission Surprise was a success!

These two have a special bond...there's lots of love there.

The second tearful moment was the welcome home hug from Ken, from one soldier to another.  There was lots of mutual respect and understanding wrapped up in that hug.

And y'all know that momma K was shedding some tears, naturally.

Together, again :)

We went to Outback Steakhouse to celebrate her return...there were lots of phone calls to make.

Cheers to God's protection, to prayers answered, and to Carissa safe return home...

We'll drink to that!

We feasted from drinks, appetizers, soup, salad, steaks, and dessert...and shared lots and lots of laughs.  It was SO GOOD to have our Carissa back, and she was full of funny stories.  It was good we nearly had the restaurant to ourselves, true to McDaniel form, it got a little loud!

Smiles all around :)

The laughs continued back at the hotel, when Kenny came out in his Tshirt that paid homage to our visit with Carissa in Germany this past summer before her deployment.  I'll let you Google translate what it says... ;)

The evening would not be complete without a rousing game of chickenfoot :)

Any time together with family, when we are separated by so many miles, is a good time :) It makes for one happy momma!

 600 miles one way, a day and a half of waiting, waiting, waiting, and it was oh, so worth it!  The only thing we needed to complete the picture was Jennessa and Michael.  There's lots of love right there.  Momma's heart is overflowing. 

The next morning, the girls had to leave by 8:00am for their trek back to Indiana.  Carissa was up and out of there at zero dark 0330am for six hours up hurry up and wait with the Army to return her body armor and weapon.  And that was after less than four hours of sleep.  I think she was running on pure adrenaline at this point.  She was T-24 hours of being reunited with her husband, Austin.  What a reunion THAT will be!  We squeezed the last few hours of visiting with her at Panera's, and then at the airport, before she was preparing to board her plane at 1:30pm.  We then left for 'home', another 600 miles and 12 hours back to the Keys.  We pulled in to Banana Bay at 1:30am.  Ironically, this was 7:30am Germany time, which was the arrival time of her flight in Frankfort.  I know I fell asleep with a smile on my face, knowing that Carissa and Austin were finally reunited after seven+ months apart.  This momma is plum worn out by all the miles traveled and all of the emotions.  G'nite, y'all!

 

 

 

PS, In case you were wondering, Willis was sequestered on Marquesa, holding down the fort.  Dan and Biddi checked on him daily.  He was oh so glad to see his mom and dad...he was in rare form flopping and purring, and flopping some more...it was like he didn't know what to do with himself.  When we crawled into bed, he promptly jumped up there with us, flopping and purring LOUDLY, and we fell asleep spooning with his paw in my hand.  Oh, that Willis.  He's the best.