Home Sweet Home

Wake up 7:30 AM.

Stay awake all day.

Get on an airplane at 10:30 PM

24 hours from boarding the airplane in Bangui, I crawl out of the plane to the Indianapolis airport.

I have been awake 39 hours. There are a few attempts at sleeping in there but really I have been awake.

I am exhausted!!!

30 minutes into the flight from Atlanta to Indianapolis we hear that we are carrying a fallen solider home. When we arrive at the airport we need to remain seated while the Army Officer escorting the solider home can get off the plane. When we land, every Indianapolis airport fire truck and fireman is lined up to greet the coffin. The family is waiting beside the security officers for the solider to be taken off of the airplane. We sit in the plane looking out the window at this family stricken with grief.

We get off the plane but can not help but stand at the window and watch. The family appears to be a mother, father, two sisters, and a wife (or girlfriend). The wife stands away from the family eager to run to the casket. When they finally let them get closer the woman is antsy with the pain. You can see how much she just wants to hold or touch the person in that coffin. You want her to have that final moment.

I wanted to fall over from exhaustion...I wanted to run into the arms of the person welcoming me home and cheer that I have reached my home...but I was glued to that window with tears streaming down my eyes. My heart absolutely ached for that family. I wanted it not to be so. I imagined what it would be like to be in that situation. It is painful thinking about it. I thought of the families I know that have someone in the service, I pray they never have to wait plane side as the body of their loved one comes out.

Life just hurts sometimes.