Boot Camp

Aaron officially left for Boot Camp...I mean Basic Training...today!

I'd love to show you pictures, but apparently I have maxed out my free photo uploading for Blogger.  Bummer.  Didn't even know there was a limit.  Anyone out there using Blogger know of a free way to get around this?  Or do I have to shell over some money? Comment away! Please...I'm behind in uploading pictures!

I digress.

Aaron did leave today.  Truly, he left home yesterday morning.  I drove him to the recruiter's office{then sat and cried big hot mama tears in the car...like I had the day before just thinking about the end of one chapter of life and the beginning of another}.  He spent the night in a hotel on the US Navy's tab and then in actuality left for boot camp today.  

We took the whole clan to see him off.  (He didn't seem embarrassed at all! Matter of fact he seemed to enjoy getting to hold and play with Lily & Joshua before he left and joke with Emma.)

We spent all morning sitting and waiting with him, watched him swear into the US Navy again (yes, we have pics...but again...can't upload), and then shortly after 1pm he got in a van with about a dozen other Navy recruits and headed to the airport.  

I didn't cry this time!  I had been asking the Lord to help me celebrate and rejoice that we and he had hit this milestone {not to mention asking that Aaron's last vision of his mom not be a sobbing form of his mother!}.  And He gave that to me.  It was wonderful to see Aaron look relieved and excited to be getting on with getting on.

Not sure if he's still feeling that way now that he's probably there or almost there...but we'll see how he sounds when he gets his 2 minute call sometime tonight (I think)!

One of the most poignant things I will remember about Aaron's departure was Joshua's response.  Yesterday, when all the girls were telling him good-bye and giving him hugs and it was Joshua's turn...he just burst into big honking, belly-sobbing tears.  He gets it. Hurts my heart that he soooo understands loss unlike any other in our family save Lily.  I tried to assure him Aaron that we will see Aaron again, but it will just be awhile.  He loves his big brother.

So do we.

In Him,