I never suspected a thing and I thought I had pretty good sense about these kinds of things.
Saturday morning Richard and Cam were working outside (there's a never-ending list of clean up and moving things) and I went to the garage to help give some directions to help them out! We knew Ian was coming over later in the day to help out but I was surprised when Cameron announced that he saw him coming up the road. Then he said, "And there's some other guys with him..."
At this point I was headed back inside, because as comfortable as I would like to be, my Saturday morning hair is not made for public consumption. But back to the story, Cameron yells...and starts running, "Ryan and Katelyn are here!"
Cameron is seldom wrong about these kinds of things but there was no way Ryan and Katelyn could be here. They live in Georgia, he is in the possession of the United States Government, via the Army and they hadn't told me they were coming.
It was them! Cameron almost climbed through the window of their car to get to Ryan and ERIN climbed out of the back! Before I knew it Jordan had come out, and Lauren had woken up Sheridan (who happened to have a friend over) and videoed her blindly following her to the garage until she realized it was her big brother in the driveway. And she ran down the driveway, jumped up in Ryan's arm and we were ALL 10 IN THE DRIVEWAY...AND AT HOME.
For 3 days we were all here. We went to the Razorback game in Fayetteville, saw Katelyn's brother and almost ALL their friends...we worked together in the yard, we went to church together, grilled out and BOTH sets of grandparents came to see us. Monday morning Ryan and Katelyn were headed back to Georgia, Erin headed back to college. Monday Richard was back on the road and the littles went back to school.
It was the best surprise ever. Why? Because my kids wanted to be here. They wanted to see us. They wanted to be with us, and eat with us and hug us. They didn't mind washing windows, cleaning up the yard and organizing our boxes in the garage. Because they "get" FAMILY. Every time we're together it's loud enough to make me wish for quiet time, but I know that when we're loud it just means we're all together. The impact that makes on my littles is a seed that will grow over time and someday, I pray, they'll value FAMILY too.
