Saying Goodbye..........one last time

Dear Family and Friends,
It has been awhile since I last wrote, and for that I apologize. Life has been very routine, and there really has not been much to report. We either spend our days out on the road helping to move supplies, or back at the motor pool working on our equipment and trying to stay busy. Eli and I spend our spare time watching movies with friends, reading books, playing games, and just doing anything we can to make the time go faster. Our leave at the end of December is quickly approaching, and it is getting harder every day to contain our excitement. I cannot wait to get home and be able to give my parents and my wife a hug. There are so many things I am looking forward to, it would be to long of an e-mail to try and list everything. To list just a few, I am looking forward to my mom’s cooking, to being able to pet my dog Abby, to drink a beer with dinner, to hold my wife’s hand while driving in my jeep, wearing my Cohort jacket with a flannel shirt underneath, laying on my couch and watching TV with my wife, going to church at Tinkling Springs, watching a Wilson basketball game and wishing I was on the sidelines coaching, being able to hug all four of my grandparents, enjoying time with as many friends and family as I can fit into two weeks, and many other thing as well. The list could go on and on, there are so many things I am looking forward to during my time home.
But the thing I am looking forward to the most is something that most people would not guess. I am looking forward to saying goodbye to my parents and my beautiful wife when I return to Iraq. I know this sounds odd, but consider my reasoning. Since joining the military in May of 2003 I have had to say goodbye to my family, friends, parents, and wife a total number of seven times, at the end of my two weeks it will be my eighth goodbye. These farewells are not a simple “see you later,” they are painful, and everyone involved knows that it will be a long time before we are reunited. Every time I have had to say goodbye it has been at least a month and a half before I see my loved ones again. Typically it has been longer, and sometimes for as long as seven months. One lesson that I have learned in the military is that goodbyes are not something that gets easier with practice. Saying goodbye to my family in Gulfport was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, and something I never want to do again. Saying goodbye in the airport when I leave to go back to Iraq will mark the final time in my six-year enlistment that I will have to say a hard goodbye. When I return to the states I will have less than a year left on my contract, and no chance of deployment. I will not reenlist for one simple reason, I can’t say goodbye again. Leave will be an amazing time for my family and me, but like everything in my life since I received word of my deployment, it will be bittersweet. I am looking forward to leave, and I am also looking forward to my final goodbye in the military. It will be painful like they all have, but it will be the last.
I hope this e-mail finds you all doing well and having a good start to your holiday season. Eli and I have been listening to Christmas music to try and get in the mood. Our Christmas present will be a flight out of here on the 25th, the best present we could of asked for. Have a great week, take care, and I look forward to talking to you all soon,

Lots of Love from Iraq,