Everywhere I am, There You'll Be

I see the tears in pictures of grown men crying. I hear the cries of women and children across the world. All of them are devistated, their minds clouded over. Lost and weary from confusion and pain and every one of us wondering, when will it end?
There is a sense of glory in it all, knowing they have given everything they can and more. Angry as we are that we have to do this, give them up, sacrifice more then the average American, we know what we've gotten ourselves into. Nothing is easy.
Spending days and nights on end, waiting for that one special call, email, or message more and more restless then you thought you would be. You find yourself looking in the mirror, and you see your eyes with bags under them, and some may even look bruised, your hair is thrown up in a hair tie and make-up left from the day before.
Dragging yourself, the kids don't really understand how hard this is. Daddy's away working, but he'll be home soon. Letters and short calls and they tell daddy they love him, miss him, and beg for him to come home. He would jump a plane just to be there for that birthday, or that first day of school, or that last day of school if he could, but he just can't. They will understand one day.
If only you could fly there yourself, drag him onto the plane and just bring him home. Bring them all home. The pain and tears. The thought of him not returning. The butterflies you get when you talk to him from millions of miles away for 2 minutes, just to say I love you on a delayed phone call, and hoping they understood you before the phone cut out.
That turning inside you have when you dont get a call for 5 or 6 days. It is oh so close for him to come home. Just weeks to go. I bet you have it down to the exact hours. The horrible thought starts to churn inside, something happened, something is wrong, something is far from right. After you break down, and worry...There it is that long awaited phone call and all you can do is smile.
You know that thought you get when he is so close to coming home, and you worry and maybe even bad dreams, of that one thing happening, gunfire, roadside bomb, IED...What ever it is, it starts a chain reaction in your mind of possible situations. JUST because its so close to time to come home.
Hours to go, and you've gotten your hair done, and your nails, you've cleaned the house over about 5 times, you've gotten reservations taken care of, and found a babysitter for that night so he can rest. You have gone through everything 100 times in your mind, and now you get in the car to drive 10 minutes away to where you will see him for the first time in a year.
The drive seems to take hours upon hours. The wait there does too. You want so much to walk right up to the area yourself and take him away, take him away from all the things that have played out in front of him for a year. But you can't, you can only sit there and watch, twisting your fingers into knots.
There he is stepping off of the bus, the tan handsome one, with the rucksack strapped to his back, and weapon in hand. It is overwhelming isnt it? You start to cry, anxious, nervous, happier then you've ever been. He sees you, and he starts to cry, and you notice him restraining himself from running to you.
He is home safe.