Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Welcome Home

The other day I had a good friend, ward member and former bishop come home from Afghanistan. He'd been serving there for about a year. It was good to see him and welcome him home. He and his wife are two of my most favorite people in the world. Here are some pictures.


The house all decked out for his welcome.
Here are the people waiting to meet him.
You can kind of see the police escort coming down the road.
The escort was for his car with his wife in it. He was dropped off at the end
of the street and walked up the street greeting friends that lined the way.
Here he is coming down the road. He's shaking hands with our
current bishop, who happens to be my older brother.
Getting a warm welcome from some of his former students. He was a sixth grade
teacher for a while and had obviously made an impact on these kids.
Chatting with the crowd
Two of my favorite people together again!
Here he is hugging another one of my favorite people, my mom.
He gave my mom an American flag that was flown over where he was stationed on
November 11th, in honor of my mom and dad. He said that there was fighting that day.
I tear up even thinking about it.
The obligatory arms length picture.
Here his going to get a big welcome home hug from one of his sons.
Here they are in front of their home.
Of course I asked for a kissing shot. What's a welcome home without a big kiss??
And a hug.
Welcome home Joel! Thank you so much for being willing to go forward and serve this country. I am very grateful. It's so good to have you back home safe and sound.

11 comments:

AW Cake! said...

That's awesome. What a great way to welcome home a true hero.

Vanessa said...

Glad he made it home safe and sound!

mCat said...

Welcome home soldier and THANK YOU!

Bobie said...

I'm glad he made it home safe and sound!! Tell him THANK YOU for me!!

Me (aka Danielle) said...

It truly is a joyous occassion when we have a soldier return home safely! A warm Welcome Home and THANK YOU..from me!

the fowlers said...

what a great neighborhood. i sure miss it.
i'm glad to see them back together again!

tiburon said...

That is very cool!

And it won't let me comment on your Noah post - but we are VERY much feeling it.

Adam took $1500 of our tax return to get all our food storage.

He is worried.

Lady of Perpetual Chaos said...

Oh, that made me cry! I'm so glad to see another soldier come home to his family safe and sound.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful homecoming!!!

Welcome home Joel and thank you for your serves.

My brother is headed to afghanistan this next month.

Anonymous said...

Awesome you documenting everything! What a wonderful welcome home for him. Not enough veterans get that. And I nearly teared up at you re-telling the story of him giving your mom the flag. How neat.

Jo said...

I am so glad he came home on his feet. What a blessing!