Reunion

Dinner perked me up. Eating a properly cooked, gristle-free, honest-to-God chunk of American beef, without a noodle or grain of rice in sight, has a way of doing that. So here’s what happened after we landed in Kentucky:

Dad picked us up at the Bluegrass Airport baggage claim. What a relief it was to give him a nice long hug. Reminded me that no, I wasn’t dreaming, we really were home. We made it to the house just before midnight, but my Mom, bless her heart, stayed up waiting to see Beebee in person for the very first time. Poor Beebee was wrung out, so she just cried weakly. What a trooper she was throughout all that traveling hell. Clarisse has a great inner strength.

As soon as we got in the house, we both went up to Ceddy’s room and snuck in while he was sleeping. We just had to see our boy—after sixteen days, it was time. I’d blocked him out as much as possible during our voyage, actively trying not to think about him or hear him in the background while I was on the phone with Mom and Dad. It was just too painful and made me hate China for forcing us to be away from him for so long. That resentment threatened to spill over to Clarisse, so mental exercises were all I could do. He was in nearly the exact same position he’d been in the last time we saw him, at 4 am on Thursday, May 6, as we left for the airport. Writing about it is very difficult—too difficult to adequately describe the emotions. The feeling and knowledge in the deepest part of my soul that the journey was truly and finally complete, our task had been accomplished. All I can say is what I’d said before, that our servicemen who leave their families for months or a year or whatever are stronger than me.

It was easy getting Beebee fed, rinsing her off in the shower, and tucking her into bed. For the time being we have her in a pack-n-play in our room. Her nursery is all set, but she’s used to pack-n-plays from the two weeks in hotels. Plus she’s never slept alone in her life, so we didn’t want her to wake up in a strange room all by herself. Though I must say that as strange rooms go, her nursery is pretty doggone nice. Done up in a very soothing pink (picked out the color myself), decorated with bees, butterflies, and flowers, and a soft cozy crib. Lots and lots of charming togs, too, mostly the result of our respective mothers’ impeccable taste in baby girl clothing. She’s already napped in that room today without fuss, so it won’t be long before she’s overnighting in there too.

After being up for over thirty hours, Christy and I felt and smelled dreadful, so we showered and hit the sack. Out cold before our heads hit the pillows.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of Ceddy chirping about something. At first I thought I was dreaming. How marvelous and exhilarating the feeling was, when I remembered that it was no dream! Soon Christy was up too, having heard the same beautiful sound. We knew that pictures were forthcoming, so we got ourselves dressed and groomed before opening the door. My parents were downstairs with Cedric already, and when they saw me open the door and come out, they said “Look upstairs, Cedric! Look who’s home!” We didn’t know what to expect after all that time. Was he going to be mad at us? Or worse yet, would he have forgotten us and been nonplussed? God bless our boy, he looked up, saw us, yelled “OHHHH!!!! MAMA!!! DADA!!!” and came running to the stairs. After all that time, picking up our little boy and giving him a bear hug now ranks as the single greatest moment of my life. (Sorry hon—seeing you walking down the aisle at our wedding has met its match.)

Since then the transition has been remarkably smooth. Cedric’s first meeting with Clare took place on our bed. He knew who she was, called her Beebee, and was very gentle. He even gave her a kiss, the sweetheart. For her part she was wary at first, probably wondering who the heck this silly kid was. She’d never seen a picture of him before and certainly did not know what we were talking about when we spoke of him in China. But after a few minutes of watching him flop around on the bed squiggle when tickles, a smile crept into the corner of her little mouth. Henceforth it was easy sailing. So much so that, by noon, my parents felt their presence was no longer needed, so they headed back home.

Words cannot do justice to what my parents have done for us these last two and a half weeks. Not only did they take exemplary care of Cedric, they cleaned our house, trimmed our lawn, and even took care of some odd jobs I’d been meaning to do for awhile. They lightened our load and were phenomenal in doing it. The gifts we brought back for them seemed pathetic when stacked up against all that. Except for the gift of a new granddaughter, of course.

Tomorrow I’ll do one more post, finishing up with some reflections and final thoughts.