Perfection

My Mattie is home.

For two weeks I will be with my best friend and love of my life. Bennett will be with his daddy (who he recognized immediately) and we will spend time together doing nothing and everything, soaking up each others' company.

It is funny how I am feeling right now. For the last couple of days I have been trying so hard to convince myself that he really was coming home. That I really am married. When Matt left, it was like this part of my brain said, "Well, time to get a move on with this deployment thing" and just sort of shut down the whole idea of Matt. I know that must sound sort of harsh, but it was really a very good thing for all of us, done out of necessity more than actual choice. So when we learned that Matt was coming home for his two week break soon, I had to actually work to make myself realize that it was a reality. Don't get me wrong, I was super excited. It just never felt very real.

But today, on the way to the airport to pick Matt up, I finally believed it was happening. For the first time in four months, there was only a highway separating us instead of an ocean. Talk about happy! Bennett has been hearing for days now that his daddy was coming to see him too, and although I'm not really sure what is going on in his head, he seemed to be happy right along with me.

Then suddenly we were there, pulling into the Killeen Airport. And that's when I saw him, standing out on the sidewalk, waiting in his uniform with his big green duffel bag. And I'm not really sure how to explain this, but it was all just so...normal. There was no extraordinary moment of my knees going to jelly or breathless rapture. There were no butterflies in my stomach. No emotional surge. No adjustment period. It was just natural. Perfect.

It was still one of the happiest moments of my life when we finally hugged and kissed for the first time in months. And when Matt saw Bennett sitting in his car seat there were a few tears of joy from us both. But it surprised me that in the end, the overall feeling of our reunion was like he had only been gone a day or two, rather than weeks and weeks. We immediately picked up where we had left off. We held hands in the car and talked about normal, everyday things that I'm sure most husbands and wives talk about as they drive. Bennett too, felt completely at ease, acting as he would normally. We were just another family, driving home from the airport to order Chinese food and watch home videos until bedtime.

And that is our story.

I'm sure there are some people out there thinking this is a sad ending. What, after all, is a great homecoming without an emotional climax? I, on the other hand, could not have asked for anything better. To know that we are still so in sync after four months of being apart--of raising a child and running a household alone, of fighting in a war overseas--to still be connected in so powerful a way that nothing can come between that bond of togetherness. That nothing can change the way you feel about the other...the way you feel about your best friend. That, to me, is extraordinary. That, to me, is perfection. That, to me, is love.

And what greater climax is there than that? :)