Day 1090: That’s All She Wrote

Well… today marks the end of my 353 days in Pakistan.  Actually, by the time this entry posts I will be 10 hours into my trip home… and I’ll still have about 14 hours until Belgrade. 

Let’s see… at the moment of this posting (10am EST) I will be about halfway into my second of three flights… somewhere in-between Dubai, UAE and Frankfurt, Germany.  Erg… that flight is seven hours of pain!

After a three and a half hour flight from Islamabad to Dubai and a three and a half hour layover… getting onto a seven hour flight is not my idea of a good time… but totally worth it.  I just hope there will be some good movies.

Anyway, I am REALLY looking forward to get home, although it’s all still a little hard to fully process. 

Now, there is nothing hard to process about getting back to what I do best: being a husband and father… but I am having trouble processing the fact I don’t have to come back to this place.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to come back… but a year is a VERY long time.  And every time I’ve been home in the last year we’ve always had the knowledge of my return to Pakistan looming over our heads… and it’s pretty stressful.

So now, I haven’t quite processed the fact that this year is actually over… that when I return home there will be nothing looming. 

I am sure an overwhelming rush of relief is coming my way… and I can’t wait to feel it. 

Anyway… when it comes, there’s no time to truly enjoy it. 

We’re only going to be in Belgrade for about a week and then we’re off to Washington.  I decided to schedule my consultations and training before Home Leave… at this point I’m not very happy with that decision, but flight routing from Atlanta to Paramaribo is much better than from Washington, so… yeah… what are you going to do?

So… all you folks rocking the Oakwood save some room at the pool for the Schutz’s!  We’re on our way “home”!