The Packs

April 2nd.

It's finally come, the day I fly to Georgia to see Daniel and I couldn't be more excited. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to sit and wait for take off. I jump in line to check in and stood behind a guy that immediately starts talking to me. He was on his way to London and was taking the same connecting flight I was taking. He talked to me for about 10 mins before a kiosk opened up that I could check in at and print my tickets, which said "Please take your ticket and check in at the gate"...that's weird they've never said that before. Well of course there's no one at the gate to check in with so I sit and wait. The terminal is filling up fast there is no where to sit and everyone seems really anxious. Finally someone arrives at the gate to check in and they told me that the flight is over booked and they are asking people to take alternate flights. They asked me to sit and wait till they knew if I was going to be able to get on this flight.

Well panic starts to set in. What if I don't make it to Atlanta tonight, I'm gonna miss Family Day with Daniel. NO! NO! NO! This isn't happening. They started boarding the plane and then I hear my name. Please recheck at the gate. YES! They found me a set, so I headed to board the plane and guess who's standing there waiting for me? The same guy that had spoke to me earlier that day. Now he was kinda creepy. He asked where I was sitting and I prayed that we hadn't been assigned sets together. I knew that he would have talked my ear off the whole way and I wasn't feeling up for that. Luckily he was sitting two rows up from me. At least I knew he wouldn't be staring at me the whole time.

Now it was on to Chicago where I was to have an hour layover. I didn't mind, that way it gave me plenty of time to get from one terminal to the next. Well one hour turned into 3 hours and I was getting really tired and still had another two hour flight to Atlanta. I arrived in Atlanta at midnight, two hours past schedule. GRRR! Luckily Daniels parents are used to staying up late. His dad had been super smart and reserved a hotel room just two minutes away from the airport. They pulled up to the doors just outside the airport and I ran and jumped in the back set. Oh so thankful not to be flying anymore.

His parents and I talked for a little while before trying to fall asleep. I was only a few hours away from Daniel now and I was so excited to see him that I didn't get much sleep that night. 5:30 a.m and we were up getting ready for our big day. Family Day! We drove and drove for what seemed like an eternity and then there it was. We pulled up to a check point, where we gave an officer our ID's and he then pointed the way to where we would be meeting our soldier. As we drove through the base I was surprised at how nice it was. There were soldiers walking around and it made my heart race. Daniel was here, I could feel him.

We were one of the first to arrive at the recreation center. There were rows an rows of empty chairs in what looked like a gym. We waited in the lobby as people started to file in. No one was dressed up like we were. I thought it was a little disrespectful not to dress up. Anyway. They started a slide show of pictures they had taken of our soldiers in training up to this point. So many pictures! We did see a few with Daniel in them. :) The slide show lasted forever. I didn't care about seeing pictures of him. I wanted to see HIM! The Sergeant come up afterwards and said that we could meet our soldiers out front in the parking lot, and asked if anyone had any questions before he released us. OMG! Of course some idiot had questions. Just let me out of here! We filed out of the gym and search through four groups of soldiers for Daniel. They were all singing along with their Sergeants. It sounded really cool.

There he was ! Standing in the back of his formation looking straight ahead like a perfect statue. It took my breath away. He looked so perfect in his uniform. I fell in love with him all over again at that moment. When their DS's released them and he was instantly lost in the crowd and I was searching for him again. When our eyes finally met for the first time he was walking in my direction. He hugged both his parents and then I through myself into his arms, wrapping my arms around his neck and I had no intention of ever letting go. I was so overwhelmed that I cried as we stood there holding onto each other. As far as I knew he and I were the only two people in that parking lot.

After he peeled me off him, we gathered his things and headed for the car. All his buddies where saying goodbye to him, but I never turned to see who there were. I didn't care about them, I was so mesmerized by Daniel no one else existed. I just wanted to get him in the car and drive away so I could have him all to myself. Thinking about it now, I must have looked so rude to all his friends. Oops. On the drive home we listened to him talk about some of his experiences. I just stared at him. I couldn't believe that we were together again, for four hours I didn't look away from his perfect face.

His grandparents had dinner waiting for us when we got back to Blairsville. We visited for awhile there and then took him home to rest for the rest of the night. Being back in their house brought back memories from being there last fall. Everyone settled in for the night and Daniel and I fell asleep holding tight to each other. :)

The next morning we slept in a bit, and then his grandma fixed us biscuits and gravy. The boys washed the mustang and truck while I went to shower and get ready for the day. Then I heard gunshots. Lots and Lots of gunshots. They are out back shooting his dad's hand gun, and I didn't want to miss out so I through my hair in a ponytail and went to find them.Daniel saw me coming and asked if I wanted to try. I sweetly shook my head yes. ;) His dad gave me a few instructions and handed me the gun. I was so nervous. The more I shot the more nervous I got.. I did manage to hit a few things. It was so much fun!

Daniel and I headed off in his mom's convertible mustang to visit his very best friend Kevin. He had no idea Daniel was in town and we wanted to surprise him. Kevin actually recognized me before he did Daniel. It was good to see them together. We made plans to get together later that night, so we set out to visit Kevin's parents for a minute. Ok Daniel is the worst at introductions. I just stood there next to him as he visited his friends and he never mentioned me. LOL. It's fun to just stand back and listen to them talk about old times.

It was off the Brasstown Bald. A mountain Daniel took me too last time I was here to look at the stars. So beautiful, and romantic. I loved it up there. Here I was in a skirt and slip on shoes hiking up this mountain, well it's really more of a hill compared to mountain's I'm used to. My feet start hurting pretty fast and I'm already out of breath. Not super impressive! I wanted to get to the top, but needed to stop a few times along the way. Well I couldn't stop for to long, cuz there were Nat's swarming around me. He kept asking me if I wanted to turn back, but I didn't want to look that completely helpless so we kept on moving. Getting to the top was great. It brought back a lot of memories from the night he taken me there last fall. It was super romantic gazing at the stars with him.

We walked around the observatory trying to catch the breeze to keep the Nat's away. Daniel was a little disappointed that there were other people up there. I wasn't quiet sure why at the time. We tried to find a spot that we could be alone. When your up there you are on top of the world, the wind would catch my skirt and swish it around. I couldn't have been happier finally being alone with him, laughing and talking like we always do. And then. He knelt down on one knee and looked up at me this those big brown eyes and asked. "Will you marry Me?" I thought the wind had lifted my heart away like a kite. I looked down at him and said "YES!" He scooped me up in his arms, and I cried once again happy tears. With the top down we spent the rest of the afternoon driving around singing songs and watching the sun sink lower and lower, casting a golden glow over the landscape. It was beautiful and peaceful, I felt as if it was my heart casting the glow instead of the sun. The day was perfect.