Saturday, February 17, 2001

back to my story......

where was I? Oh yeah, I was preparing to come home to meet Roger again, after being apart for 9 months.

I was apprehensive about this. I wasn't the same person I was when he left. I became stronger, more independant, and I liked my independance. I knew I would miss my husband's family, after all, I had lived with them for 9 months. I shared holidays with them and had my 20th birthday there. I shared my fears, my hopes, my dreams. As quickly as I was tossed into their home, I was leaving it. The phone call came in that Roger was due home and I needed to go home to prepare.

I made my flight preparations. I got a discount, since it was related to desert storm. (what a plus LOL) I packed my bags, I said my goodbyes and I was on my way home again.

I think I was home about a week before Roger got home. I was so excited! I couldn't believe that we'd finally be together again :-)

I was at the airfield when the plane came in It had a yellow ribbon painted on the outside. When it came in and slowed down, someone opened the hatch in the cockpit area of the plane and held up an American flag. I couldn't see through tears. There were families all over. Several planes came in that day, Roger's was late. So I witnessed several thousand families being reunited. Anyway, his plane landed and hundreds of soldiers came out. All dressed alike of course. How on earth was I going to find my husband? I looked all over. Everyone crowded into the hanger, most of them paired with their family members. I walked around aimlessly, my heart beating wildly in my chest. Was he on a different flight? Did something happen? Was he delayed somewhere? I went up to the podium and asked the speaker if he could page for my husband he didn't hear me and I started to say his name a second time when I looked up and there he was, in line to ask them to page me. :-) I said never mind and ran to him. He had a rose for me. When they had a lay over at JFK all the men bought flowers for their wives/girlfriends. He didn't have any money so he borrowed money from his friend (Jack, if you're out there, we still owe you the money for the rose Hehe) He never would take the money :-) we hugged, kissed, hugged, kissed some more.....just stood there.....crying and hugging.......finally he noticed that I had lost weight. In those 9 months I never told him, I had lost 50 lbs :-) He had lost too, was the thinnest he had been in years. We got a cab (shared it with half a dozen other men) and went home.

The first thing he wanted to do was have a Domino's Pizza. He didn't want sex (my first thought), didn't want a beer or a steak, he wanted pizza. So we ordered pizza. Now, Domino's had a 30 minute guarantee. (or was it 15?) well, anyway, from the time it took us to order our pizza, to the time we got our pizza, we took care of what was first on MY list :-)

My life was sort of normal again, and I liked that. I got back into my old routine, and of course gained back the 50 lbs I had lost, much to my dismay.

In June I found out I was pregnant. It was part of the Desert Storm baby boom. thousands of babies were due. I'm not kidding. The men started coming back in February and starting in late November, babies were being born. I was due in February, along with 300 other women. Prenatal care was at a minimum. I had complications. I had written about my first pregnany back in January, so I won't do that again, but to summarize quickly, I had twins, my son was stillborn, my daughter, premature. She is now 9. :)

She became our life . We were no longer Maggie and Roger, we were Jenna's parents. :-)

We made the difficult decision, not long after her birth, for Roger to get out of the Army and to move to PA, my home.