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| Our airport greeting crew! |
Waiting...
The anticipation was better than Christmas Eve! From the moment I got notifications on my phone that "Lily comes home today," I was tracking Lily's flight online! She was already in the air when I woke up. Unfortunately, her connecting flight airplane was having issues so she had to be transferred to a different flight which left her stranded in Baltimore for 7 hours until her next flight could get her outta there. It was such a looooooooooooong travel day for my sweet missionary daughter. It was on our drive out to the Wasatch Front that Lily called us and told us the news of her plane delay. It meant her plane wouldn't be landing in Salt Lake until 10pm. Looking on the bright side, at least there wouldn't be traffic to/from the airport at that time.
My mom was stealthily rummaging with her eyes through the nearby garbage can where right on top was a poster board, she grabbed it out and it was a welcome home sign someone had made for a different missionary. Providence! She quickly retrieved her new found treasure and thanked God for putting it there for her. With a few well-placed folds hiding the Elder's name, the card was now for Lily reading, "Welcome Home - We love you"
And guess what~ I recognized Sister Jones, Lily's trainer and Sister Peterson that I saw in tons of Lily's pictures. She must've recognized me too, despite having never met, because we locked eyes and immediately our matched smiles drove us in to hug each other without a word of greeting. I prayed for her, as I would pray for my Lily and I know the Lord blessed them! Sister Peterson was a trainer for Sister Miller who was also flying home with Lily. Something cool is Lily's first companion in the MTC was Sister Miller. So, Sis. Jones and Sis. Peterson had come together to greet their "daughters" home. Oh the anticipation was swirling in waves of angelic confetti around us!
Fun side note- Across from our family group was Sister Miller's family, and extended family I imagine, because there were probably 25 people there waiting with hoards of balloons, flowers, and adorable signs. Oh, and a hired photographer to capture the moment! A photographer! Brilliant. Wow. I'd say we got one-upped, but no. Our homemade candy card & candy leis, coupled with Tommy's tissue paper he was using as pompoms (my mom's idea) and my mom's new-found folded welcome home sign were unbeatable.
The Moment!
April stood at the ready with my phone camera. We were meandering the waiting room when April's boys all started saying, "Is that her? Wait! That's her! I see her! That's her! She's coming!" and then they came running to the waiting room entrance near the gate so they could see her come out. April began recording and sure enough, moments later, Sister Miller comes through the gate and her cheering squad explodes. Lily followed right behind her and at first looked where Sister Miller was running to, but didn't see us. It was probably hard to be heard over them, but we got lungs and started yelling her name and cheering and she looked across to the other side where we were and she found us and began her run too. She dropped her suitcase right before coming in for a hug. MY HUG! I'm crying just remembering the moment. My baby was in my arms again.
I could feel her joyful, worn-out soul as I held her. I wonder if she could feel my pride, comfort, support, and love for her in that moment. I'm pretty sure she could because souls can speak and mine was blaring out louder than a lighthouse foghorn!
Tall, beautiful, radiant, strong. She was all those things before she left, but at her return, I could sense that this girl of mine had grown even more, that God had cared for my little blossom, and she came back MORE. All her goodness muliplied!
Enjoy the next few screen shots from the video as Lily reunites with everyone.
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| Dad asks to get in on the action |
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| Trying to control the tears |
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| SISTERS! I love how Amara jumped into Lily's arms! |
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| Aunty April- her other mom. She kept her stock of Oreos supplied her whole mission. |
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| Ah, yes. The tissue paper pompoms. Tommy shook them at Lily and then gave them to her and told her to shake them! |
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| If there was an opening in hugging her, I was taking it! |
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| Bridger! |
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| Tommy! |
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| And Devon who became NBA-tall over her mission. |
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| Amara just revealed the secret fold in Grandma's sign |
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| sisters in the Lord |
So, this last pic is by the baggage area where Lily's baggage was not to be found. It was on her original plane and wouldn't be arriving until midnight, a couple hours later. Southwest agreed to give her a $150 voucher if she wanted to pick up her luggage at the airport. She was exhausted, but what was another couple hours? Plus... Micah's family was finishing Jaxon's state concert in Salt Lake and wanted to get together for some food. So, we planned to meet them at the Burger King in the airport parking lot.
Time to Celebrate!
This Burger King run worked out phenomenally. The perfect reunion of Lily seeing her cousins and a needed diversion from the frustrations of flight delays and missing baggage.
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| Can you guess who wheeled out a chalkboard and stole some stuffies from the nursery to create this adorable sign? If you guessed my mom... Ding! You win! |
We were running late to our own party, but my dad and everyone else who was on time got things all set up in the gym and waited for us. They brought games too since we advertised that we'd have time to play games and hang out.
After we ate, Lily got up and gave a quick overview of where she's been the past 18 months, then answered questions from the audience. It really warmed my heart to hear her speak! You know, how I said she's grown and God's been nurturing her- it was completely evident! I'm so proud of who she is! Such a light to our home, family, and world!
Jay brought his guitar to Lily's homecoming so they could compare skills, just kidding. Well, kinda. He actually would joke with her on her mission that he would be better than she was at guitar when she gets home. Asking Lily about it now, she said they are probably about the same level.
In the afternoon, we packed up and headed home. We had a stake president's meeting later that night where Lily would be officially released. That meeting with the Stake President was more than I realized. We had pondered the possibility of Lily being released over the phone so she could go to see movies with her cousins. Gladly, our stake president texted us it would be a tragedy to do it that way, but he'd do it if we wanted to. Lily decided to take the advice of President Goodrich and do it in person.
At the meeting, he spoke with Lily a lot about her mission and what it was like and the experiences she had. About 45 minutes had passed of her reporting to him when he invited our family to leave the room with him and let Lily take as much time as she wanted to ponder, pray, look at the pictures of Christ around his office, and just have some alone time with God. And, when she was ready, she could remove her missionary name tag and come join us in the other room. With that he grabbed a box of tissues and slid it across his desk toward her, and we left.
As we waited in the other room, we just talked to President Goodrich about different things and how life was going. Maybe 10 or 15 minutes later, Lily joined us with red eyes and her name tag in hand. She told us that she didn't know it was going to be that hard. She just couldn't take the tag off because of what it stood for. After praying, she looked at a picture of Christ on the wall and said to herself, "You know what? HE is my nametag!" And with that, she slid off her badge. There were lots of tears.
I feel such gratitude for this missionary experience Lily got to have! I'm glad she could have a meaningful moment to release her from this calling of teaching about Jesus. His love and sacrifice changes us all for the better and brings us blessings we can't completely fathom!
At church the next day, Lily got to say hi to lots of familiar faces. Mandy even came and they got their first hugs since they've been gone from each other for 2 years.
Lastly, we saved Christmas for when Lily came home. April and her boys and dogs joined us since it was a school holiday that weekend. It was so fun for us to have them there!
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| We gave the girls tickets to go see Peter Pan the ballet as a family in Salt Lake. April helped with the prep of this gift. We decided to make it a puzzle and give half the pieces to Lily and half to Amara. April drew a cute "ticket" on cardboard and asked me, "How should I cut this?" "Just do triangles" I said. She bust up laughing! "Triangles would be so hard to put together!" And then she started cutting triangles. She was right! It was hard to put together because there are no straight-edge border pieces- they are all straight edges! April was busting up laughing watching them put it together! Amara insisted they could do it, and do it, they did! About ten minutes later they had it done. |
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| Pippin got a new dog bed and Ellie thought she'd break it in for him. It was so funny. She was so big for it, but she liked it. |
It's so good having Lily home! We will cherish our moments, for it is what life is. Always changing. Especially in the transitory young adult years. With that in mind, we will MAKE our moments worth remembering! Lily home is our new adventure. For a moment. :)
