surrealness

So you have totally not experienced Surreal until you've lived in Kansas for two months, had to say good bye to your husband for a year and THEN 12 months later RETURNED to that same Kansas where you use to waste time all day in preparation for your husband to leave you...only to find yourself WASTING TIME all day AGAIN in preparation for his return.

Anyway, because that last paragraph was a bit on the murky side, let me re-cap:

Yesterday I spent alllllll daaaaaaay ( until exactly 11:25pm) waiting to get Brett back from the LONGEST DEPLOYMENT IN THE HISTORY OF MY LIFE* ( * I say this because there have actually been much longer deployments...and for the families and soldiers who have dealt with that over the many years of the United States Army...all I can say is "wow". )...anyway, a goodly part of that day was spent dealing with the ILL-TIMED BREAK-IN that happened to my car while parked at the Ghetto Apartments in Washington. Luckily I have two non-ghetto friends who live in the Ghetto Apartments and they took care of it like PROS. ( although this is the SECOND time I've been in Kansas and had Amy call me to tell me that my car window is broken. THIS is a pattern I'd like for us to break. for reals.) ...and the rest of the day was spent in levels of praise and thankfulness as I thought about how AMAZING God has been to Brett and I in the past year.

I can honestly say that God took something awful and hard and uncomfortable and lonely and painful and scary and He USED IT! He used in all sorts of amazing ways. I am actually really proud of how I spent my year. I know that sounds pretty self-involved but this blog is self-involved so deal with it. But, yes, I'm proud. And I am amazed by the work God has done in the lives of those people that I've spent the last year with...seeing how much they have grown and how much their lives are a testimony of Christ...well, it was an honor to be a part of that. All by God's grace.... Yesterday I spent a few hours with the girl that I lived with when I was here in Kansas the first time around and it was truly incredible to see how God is working in HER life! Just one more way in which God has shown himself to be faithful.

Anyway, back to yesterday: Finally at 11:25pm I got my husband back and it was oddly normal. It was SO normal having him in the car with me...so normal talking to him. I had to remind myself that it was actually MONUMENTAL. And I also had to keep reminding myself that it was permanent. That two weeks from now he will NOT leave, he'll continue to stay. Of course, one of the reasons I have to keep reminding myself of this is because the Army makes it HARD TO BELIEVE. Namely because Brett had to be BACK AT WORK at 5am this morning. Which....mathematics time....FIVE HOURS after getting Brett back, I had to return him to the Army until 6pm tonight. And then we have to do that again tomorrow. So, yeah, I have to pinch myself. Because the Army doesn't like to make it easy...

Stay tuned for what I'll call How to Best Stalk Abigail over the next month...when I will give you a play by play of the COAST TO COAST roadtrip that Brett and I will be taking to get from Washington to Georgia.

And now I will leave you with the first picture of Brett and I reunited.