We have a Date!

I got an email from Jonny yesterday evening. He's been on his mission in Thailand since July 2008. Well, he had news of his return; the date has been set as July 23rd. Woohoo! Bummer.

Now why the mixed emotions you might ask. I'll say it's because I'm a mom who has missed her son and was looking forward to seeing him again around the first of the month - not the end! Darren and Jeffrey, on the other hand, are happy for Jonny getting an extra three or so weeks. I guess they understand better how a guy might like as much time as he can get in the field and may or may not be looking forward to coming home as much as his mother is looking forward to it. I know Jeffrey didn't want his mission to end, and my husband has been home from his mission for over twenty-eight years and he's still unhappy with the decision that cut his mission short from two years to eighteen months.

That's not a bad thing though - to love your mission enough to want to stay on it. It's just that there's a time and a season for everything. And as I tried to tell Jeffrey, he'd completed as honorable mission like the Lord asked of him and now it was time for him to go on with his life, do other things, and progress in other ways. Jonny will also. The bottom line is that we do have a date for when he is coming home, and I'm so happy about that. (It helps us make our own plans too.)

I've really missed Jonny. In the past we've teased him for his tendency to talk a lot and draw out a story far longer than necessary - taking forever to get to the main point. But I've missed that too, and I'm looking forward to letting him talk to us and tell us whatever he will with as much time as it takes him. And although I don't make it a practice to count the months, weeks, or days - I'll make an exception just today... one, two, three, four, five, SIX months until I see him again! Yay!