Sevens........

7 days before Dave deployed Liam was diagnosed with PDD-NOS.
Ben was 7 months when Dave left.
Now 7 days before the 7 month mark, Dave is due to arrive home.

The deployment will be 7 days less than 7 months long.....or 205 days.....or 29 weeks and 2 days.  Unlike 365 day deployments where there is 2 weeks R&R (plus travel time), Dave got zero R&R, not even the 3 days at a nicer deployed location (which used to be standard for 6 month deployments).  And with the news we got last week, there will be no rest for the weary as we are gearing up to move this summer.

I don't know a time that Dave will land by commercial airline, but we could use every prayer that can be spared that there will be no delays and the day does not change.

At some point during these last six seven months, I had to stop hoping and anticipating Dave's return.  I could not get through the day to day life thinking he'd be back someday.  In the last month, the closer we got, the more it felt like he'd never come home.  Now that I know a day, it's real, but letting in the joy of homecoming also means letting in the pain of separation, so the tears I haven't been able to cry for the last seven months won't stop now.  Please let him not be delayed.