Garth is Home!

April 20, 2015.

That was the day I dreamed about for 9 long weeks.

The day when my husband was finally coming home!

The day when I could hold him and kiss him for real, not through a computer screen haha!

The last week was definitely the longest and slowest, as it always is before something as exciting as this happens. We stopped skyping as much because it only made us grumpy that we weren't together and we were both just so done with the situation and ready for it to be over. April 18th was our last skype date (hopefully ever!) as the next day (Sunday for me, Monday for him), he would be getting on a plane and starting his long 30 hour journey back to us.

Sidenote: It was pretty trippy talking to Garth everyday because it always felt like I was talking to him in the future, which he totally was haha...

Sunday and Monday were the two longest days of my life. I had his flight information on my phone and I probably checked my screen over a thousand times.

Finally Monday evening came and me, the boys, my mom and sister headed to pick him up. 

I was so anxious/nervous/excited all I wanted to do was get off Deerfoot as soon as possible, get to the airport on time and then I could relax. I ended up being there way early and surprisingly enough, I couldn't relax at all.

After what seemed like forever, he came out and I couldn't believe I was actually seeing him, it felt like a dream. I didn't know what to expect or how I was going to react, but as soon as I saw him I just started booking it towards him and threw myself at him. It sounds funny, but it felt very surreal actually touching him. It is hard to explain unless you've gone through it I guess.

After hugging and kissing like a bajillion times he stepped back and looked at me and was like "You are so skinny!" He left soon after we had Asher and came back to a 20 lbs lighter Amanda. Garth also got into a daily exercise routine while he was in New Zealand so he came back tanned and skinnier so it was pretty hilarious we were just staring at each other like "You look good..."

Then Garth was able to hold Asher, who when he left, was a skinny scrawny baby and was now a pudgy huge chunky not so little baby. He said he didn't feel like he was holding the right baby. He was like "I think I love you...you're Asher right?"

Anyways, while we weren't expecting Garth to arrive when he did, Grant was gone walking around the airport with my mom. It worked out perfectly because we got to have a moment together, and then him and Asher got to have a moment together and then like they timed it perfectly, we see both Grant and my mom walking down the hall towards us.

As soon as Grant looked up and realized who it was his face broke out into a huge grin and he just started booking it towards Garth as fast as his little legs could take him.

Garth started to cry and ran at him and that was when I lost any sort of control that I had and just started bawling.

Those two have the most unexplainable and special connection, that I pretend to be jealous of but secretly love. Garth is Grant's favourite person in the whole world and he missed his dad so much. While Garth was gone, Grant got over the skyping this pretty quickly which I know was really hard on Garth because he felt like he was losing that connection. We both talked about what it would be like when he came home and prepped ourselves for Grant to act a little confused or different but I assured him that he would warm up to him eventually. HA! It took 0.00 time at all for them to bounce back and I knew Garth was so relieved and happy about that.

We headed out to the parking lot and the main feeling that washed over me was RELIEF. I was so happy to be done the hardest 9 weeks of my life, to have my husband home again, the father of my kids, my partner that I so desperately needed and missed and loved. It was the most amazing feeling and we held onto each other for dear life the whole way home while he talked about the magical land of New Zealand haha.

That night, we hung out as a family, put Grant to bed, and then Garth, Asher and I headed to a hotel so Garth and I could finally spend some much needed alone time together. It was the most perfect night and I couldn't of dreamt it up any better.

We were both so so happy to be together again and he promised that, even though it was an experience of a lifetime, he could never leave me again.

-A.

Ps- Once life isn't so crazy and he has the time, I plan on getting Garth to write a little bit about his New Zealand adventures on the blog, so if I were you I would get excited for some pretty darn beautiful pictures!