Four Days of Joy

Well, we just recently returned from our first visit. I had not seen my husband in 6 months and we had to drive 11 hours to do that. His aunt helped make the trip possible, she made all the arrangements, drove her car and did whatever she could to make the trip enjoyable for me and the kids. The trip down took a little longer than we had planned because of some traffic issues, but we arrived in time to go visit for a few hours and go through the process for the first time. It was not as bad as one might imagine, but the officers quickly realized that it was our first time, and they "softened" up a bit. We had to fill out paperwork, wait. Move up to the correct building when called and wait. Hand in our ID and paperwork, then wait. Get photographed (only happens on your first visit), remove our shoes, empty pockets, pass through the metal detector, get your hand stamped and stand in line and wait. We were then taken through one set of doors and waited for permission to go through the second set of doors. We were told where to sit and then we impatiently waited to see him.

I did not see him come in the room, my back was to the door that he entered the room through. Suddenly the kids were saying "There's Dad!". I immediately started looking around the room but I did not see him, finally the kids where able to point him out to me. Oh my! I did not recognize him at all. The warmer climate certainly agrees with him, he has lost over 30 lbs, new hair cut and much healthier. Hugs and kisses all the way around. My littlest admitted that he thought we would be talking to him over the phone with a piece of glass between us, imagine how surprised he was when he got to sit on Dad's lap. My oldest got to see how tall he was compared to Dad and my daughter was glad to see her Dad.

The kids went back with me the next morning and I went alone the last day by myself. The last day was difficult because it meant that we would be leaving without him again shortly without knowing when we would be able to see him again. We did spend the rest of our afternoons like vacation, amusement parks, swimming, beaches and site seeing thanks to his aunt.

Overall it was the best 4 days our family has had in a very long time, only a hint of what the future holds for us as a family. So much has come out of the trip that there is not enough room in one entry, so I will save that for another day but all I can say is a grateful thank you to a wonderful aunt who will never really appreciate how much what she did meant to all of us.