Making Signs

Kids lying on their bellies all over the floor...
Empty pizza boxes scattered around...
Markers, red and blue streamers, and balloons spread throughout the bedroom...
We're making signs...
Welcome Home signs...
He's coming home...

We had our traditional "Daddy's Coming Home" party tonight...
It always comes after "the call."
It's just for us...no one else invited...
It's always the night before he comes home...
We eat pizza, make signs, and have a big slumber party...
We celebrate that's he's somewhere back in the States and
we wrap up the time we spent without him...
The time apart is done...maybe not well-done, but we did it...
And there's great relief in our house tonight...

The call came around 5:30...
His cell phone rings a special tone on my phone...
The tone hasn't rang in a couple months because his phone has been out of service...
We know he's back in the States when that phone rings his song...
We all can't help but scream...
HE'S HOOOOME!
Okay, not officially home, but back in the States and that's pretty close...
Closer than he was a day ago...
Close enough to celebrate...

We'll wait for the final call in the morning telling us
where to be and at what time...
We'll leave the house as a family of six and return complete as a family of seven...
We'll watch the plane land, wave our signs, and watch families around us be reunited...
We'll anxiously wait for him to make his way off the plane...
He'll probably be last one off...
But I get the first kiss...
Well, I better get the first kiss...
We'll love spending time together the first couple days, we'll argue through the next week, and we'll forget he ever left in a month...

But I love this night...
The night the kids and I can high-five each other, talk about all the things we can't wait to tell him, and celebrate tomorrow's homecoming...
The night that it's over...

We're making signs...
It's time to be a family again...
Welcome Home!