My husband recently came back from Iraq after a seven month deployment. Even though this was our fourth deployment, I think this home coming was the most nerve racking of them all. It was the first time we had our own home while he was gone. So I felt a lot of pressure to have everything perfect upon his homecoming.

Even though both our dads came down about 3 weeks before he came home to help me get the house in order (cut the grass, put in a new sink and faucet, power wash the house, replace a few screens, etc.), I still felt a lot of pressure. Was he going to come home and comment on everything I did or didn’t do? Would he appreciate everything I did while he was gone?

I also worried about our relationship. Would things be the same? How long would it take us to get use to being together again? Would it be easy for me to give up my independence? Have I changed? Has he changed?

I remember about a week before he came home I woke up with a knot in my stomach. I think it was a culmination of all these worries and also the fact that I knew his unit would be moving across Iraq to Kuwait.

I finally told my self that all this worrying wasn’t going to help me or him. And whatever would come our way, we would deal with as we have in the past. While this eased my nerves a bit, I really never stopped worrying until he landed on US soil. But as soon as I saw him all the fears and worries went away. I was so excited to see him and I knew at that moment even if there were a few bumps in the road, everything was going to be okay.