There is a video online that I have watched at least a million times, and every time I would cry. It is called LDS Missionaries Coming Home, if you haven’t seen it you should, I highly recommend it! A friend of mine showed to me before my son left for his mission. I remember watching it the night before we left to drop him off at the MTC and crying, and crying!
Every time I watched that video, I would picture, and dream about how it was going to be for me when MY missionary comes home and I would be able to hug him again!
Here is the time I had been dreaming about for two plus years! About one month before my elder’s schedule time to return, I received an email letting me know the itinerary for my son’s return! I read that email over and over and over again, getting more and more excited every time I read it. I actually had a day, time, and all the stops that he will be making on his way home.
Like I said in my last post that last month couldn’t have gone any slower! Each week would drag by slower than the one before it. I was more excited than a child waiting for Christmas morning!
FINALLY the day I had been waiting for was here! I was so worried that one of his flights would be delayed, but to my great surprise, not one of the three planes were delayed! Since he was flying all the way from the Philippines, it took almost 24 hours to get home! I had downloaded an app I could use to track his planes. That did help me to see where he was! I was so excited to see when he had landed in Seattle, WA. and I knew that he was now back in the USA!
It is a little over an hour drive for us to drive to the airport. The time was finally here for me, and my family to make our way down to the airport.
One thing that I did, that I would recommend. I hired a photographer friend to come to the airport to take the pictures, so that someone who isn’t wanting to be apart of all the hugging, and sign holding to take all the pictures. That way they wont be distracted, and you will get some really nice pictures. I also handed my niece my phone to take a video of my first hug from my son in two years.
I of course left way early, just to make sure I would be at the airport in plenty of time, plus just sitting at home waiting for time to pass was almost unbearable!
I kept looking at the app following his plane, and what joy it was to see that he was now at the airport, the same airport I was! Now time to stare at the escalator he would soon be coming up! I had quite a few family members that were there waiting with me.
Then I heard my nephew yell, there he is!!! I knew that soon I would be able to hug my missionary, my SON! I could hardly keep it together!
After a crowd of people came up the escalator, there he was, my son! The hug was everything I had dreamt of and more! The best hug ever! I could of held onto him forever! I never wanted to let him go! He held me so tight, as did I him! The only thing that made me let go was my mom insisting that it was her turn to get her hug!