The big surprise reveal!!!

The time had finally come, and all the pieces were falling into place for the big Christmas surprise!  Bryan was coming home!!!!

We had known for a little bit that Bryan would be in Washington, DC for 10 days with his bosses for meetings to update everyone on how things were progressing in their neck of the woods.  We didn't know if he was really going to be able to come home for Christmas from there.  I never breathed a word of the possibility to Rory, because if it never happened I didn't have any idea how I was going to pick up the pieces of a very crushed little girl.  Poor Rory has been having a hard time with Daddy gone, there are more good days than bad days, but the bad days are pretty bad.  She couldn't get past the fact that when Daddy left in August that he wouldn't be home for Christmas, I remember the look on her little face the day before Bryan left and he had to answer her question about when he was coming home.  Just breaks your heart.

Now, the day was here!  Brendan and I were home from the tube surgery, he was cranky, uncomfortable, and only resting in my arms.  Jack was being Jack and having fun!  Mom had gone to pick Rory up from school, and as soon as they pulled in the driveway I picked up the phone and called Bryan to tell him to come home!  (He had been at his brother Kevins house down the street since Kevin was able to get him from the airport.)  Rory came home, Ann and Dave picked up and left just as our well choreographed plan had called for.

Rory and I were at the kitchen table doing her homework, as we did everyday, when I saw the car pull into the driveway, and the butterflies starting doing loops in my stomach.  This is what happened..

Things I will never forget from this moment...

The poor look of utter confusion on Jack's face when he's trying to decipher who is Daddy and who is Uncle Kevin, and then him running to the refrigerator to look at the pictures of Daddy, then he comes back and it's all better!

Rory's quotes: "Our family is back together!"  "It feels like a dream, but I know it isn't"

Brendan coming out of the post anesthia haze and tackling Bryan on the living room floor.

I always get a lump in my throat and crazy butterflies in my stomach when he comes home...I love him so much and was so happy to be back in his arms.