Missionary Home, Version 1

Back in July of 2009, our family said goodbye to Rebecca for a season. We dropped her off at the Missionary Training Center, and from that point on we heard from her only in e-mails and letters. For the rest of that year and the entire year of 2010 my sister served a mission for the LDS church in Peru.Turns out, I missed having her around. Crazy to miss the sister closest in age to me, I know.

The living arrangements in our apartment worked out for Rebecca to move in here once she got home. For a month, I lived in a room by myself because Kara-turned-Rebecca's bed was empty. I got tired of seeing that blue and white flowery mattress; not only was it not so pretty, but it meant that I didn't have a friend living in my room with me. Once it wouldn't be a ridiculously long chain, I began the countdown for Rebecca. I used that as decoration for that north side of the bedroom since nothing else was over there.

I waited....
and waited...
and soon the day had almost arrived for her return!

January 26th: I made a poster, got balloons, and skipped class to drive up to Salt Lake. Once there, I met up with most of Eric's family (Natalie was in school) to go greet our sister/aunt. We were so stinkin' excited!! Eveyln got the big responsibility of carrying the poster, and she loved it:

We waited for a few minutes before Rebecca came down the stairs. We were surrounded by at least 6 other families waiting for missionaries, which was a very foreign concept to me. There certainly has never been a homecoming welcoming crew for more than one missionary at a time back in Midland! The Blakes kept their eyes peeled:

I was so antsy! When she finally started down the stairs, I think she had a hard time finding us. Sadly enough, we were basically the smallest group of people waiting for our missionary so it's understandable that we blended in. I took a video of her coming in, but it turned out kind of shaky (I was crying of course! I'm my mother's daughter! :D). In the video you might be able to hear that I was trying to call out her name or get her attention so that she knew that her family loved her enough to come greet her.



And she's BACK!

I'm pretty sure she was amazed at how huge Evelyn is now compared to 18 months earlier:

Here's the welcoming committee:

I'm so glad to finally have Rebecca back in the United States!

....and so is Evelyn! :)

Now she's been back for about a month. In that time Rebecca got to go out and make a surprise visit to Mom on her own mission in California, she's moved into our apartment, and she's gradually adjusting to life back in a singles' ward, in English, and with not a lot to do each day. Hooray! Missions and missionaries are wonderful, but having family around is lotsa wonderful, too.

Soon I'll get to have my mommie come home! I'll let you know when she returns! :D