Comings and Goings

Tonight the main body of the 95th MP Battalion out of Mannheim, Germany will be returning home after a year-long deployment to Iraq. There are "Welcome Home" banners hanging in windows, on fences, and across carports all over post. Families of the 95th are just hours away from reuniting. It is such an exciting time. 365 days have passed. Some of those days were much longer than others, and my guess is that today is the longest of all. I am filled with so much joy for all these families, most of them I don't even know. But I am so happy for their year of trials to be over and for a new chapter in their lives to begin.

As my neighbor and friends here are preparing to welcome their husbands home, the mood is quite different at another friend's house. Tonight, my friend and her kids are saying goodbye to her husband and their dad as he is just beginning his deployment.

I'm sure this happens every day. As one unit is returning home, another is leaving. One family is experiencing sheer joy, while another is in pain. One family is tearing off that last paper ring that marked the "days until dad gets back" and another is busy cutting and rolling 365.