Well, he’s gone. The party ended about 5:00 PM as we left Dave at the security check point. The whole way there and even seeing him start to say goodbye to a lot of people didn’t make it set in… but at the airport it started to hit us. As we said our final goodbyes and he got in line, reality hit our little group hard.

As we sadly and silently worked our way back to the van I held Megan’s hand tightly. Whereas she had been playing and singing only a few minutes before, she walked quietly and hugged my leg as I paid for the parking. The silence continued as we left the parking lot and headed onto the highway.

It was superficial, but I decided that we needed to break the mood a little. So we stopped at Ikea on the way home to try to chear everyone up. It worked a little and superficially.

What an incredible experience for Dave and our little church! As we talked earlier in the day it was clear we would give him an "A" for his internship. He worked very hard. He was stretched in a lot of areas in his life. He stretched us. On and on and on. It was a great experience. Perhaps this was some of the reason we were having such a hard time leaving him? At some point along the way he stopped being an intern and starting being part of our church. Likewise, he had stopped being a guest in our home and had become a part of the family.

Something else really hard to watch: I can’t tell a lie. Some of the pain of dropping off Dave had nothing to do with him. As he made his way through the security checkpoint (Big mistake making him take off his shoes… Nacho cheese!) there was a young soldier on his way back somewhere. Proudly wearing his uniform, this massive young man was having a very hard time leaving. He carried his 2 week old baby around and couldn’t bear letting her go. As he tried to say goodbye he started weeping. (This greatly accelerated the tears in the concourse as well! We didn’t even know the guy.) He took his baby girl into the security checkpoint with him, the tears flowing freely as the reality of leaving his wife and newborn daughter behind. He simply didn’t want to give her back. The reality of life was calling him and he couldn’t bear it. For me, it was a huge reminder of the daily sacrifices young men like him make on a daily basis. Likewise, all over this country thousands of young moms take care of babies wondering when or if daddy will be home. While I am excited of the work our troops are doing in the Middle East, it isn’t free.

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