Satisfaction of Home

Rafe and Amelia on the beach outside his quarters

Norfolk, Virginia

October 2007

I can only imagine how it will feel for Rafe to come home to the United States after seeing desert for so long.

The first time I went to Texas to visit my sister, I was shocked at how unrelentingly brown Texas seemed to be. Perhaps it was just the season, but while I was there I became used to the odd beauty of Texas, plain and raw boned. When I went back to Iowa, my eyes were amazed by the contrasting lush landscape. I could not get over how green everything was.

Both of us can only allow ourselves to get just a little used to each other again. He needs to stay in Marine mode, because he's going right back into the fray and those two weeks will pass so quickly. To this end, he sent me a leave plan so we can make the most efficient use of our time possible. :) hee hee... Three pages long!

Believe it or not, I love it. It's a timeline that combined our schedule with his, along with a list of things we can do while he is home. It's actually a pretty amazing document. There are two things I particularly love about this plan. In his outline of how the day that begins in Kuwait will go (he flies there from Iraq first, and then to the US), there is an entry that says, "Go home where I belong". What wife wouldn't melt at reading that?

The second best part - he's doing the cooking!!! I'm so excited. He wants to give me a break from all my hard work. Can you imagine that? HE's the one fighting and living in the tent, and he wants to give ME a break. I'm so impressed. I'm a lucky woman!

"To know after absence the familiar street and road and village and house is to know again the satisfaction of home."

Hal Borland