He's finally home

Just got back yesterday from picking up my "adopted" son from the airport in Salt Lake City. He has spent the last 4 months and 10 days completing his basic training and AIT School for the UNITED STATES ARMY. I didn't think we were ever going to get him here. Literally.

What a rollercoaster ride it's been. He hasn't had the best life and wasn't given a fair hand to start out his young impressionable life. He, like many other young people, didn't have any kind of positive guidance growing up. So began the troubled years of becoming a teenager without supervision. Of course that lead to trouble and although many people tried to help along the way, it didn't seem to matter. The damage had been done. At some point though, all things come to an end.....notice I didn't say all "good" things come to an end.

This young man reached the bottom after having too good of a time, one too many times and getting caught. The judge whom I work for is a fair and compassionate judge, but he too has his limits. He placed the young man behind bars and gave him the choice to sit it out or change his life for the positive. You can imagine the decision was not an easy one for this troubled young man, but he did ultimately choose to change his life. I introduced him to a recruiter friend of mine from Pocatello. With the judge's approval, he joined the Army and was shipped out as soon as we could process the paperwork.

The day I dropped him off at the recruiter's office to leave for basic training was one of the worst days and best days of my life. I had taken this young man into my heart as one of my own. He didn't have the support system that other's have when making such a huge step and major decision in his life. I have known this young man for most of his life and know the background very well. He deserved better. I had such a feeling of uneasiness because of the continuing war in Iraq and being worried about what could happen to him, should he be sent over there. I was also very proud of him and felt like "my son" would make it NO MATTER WHAT. I don't know if he shared my optimism at the time, but he soon found out that he was more than capable of doing what was expected of him.

He was a squad leader in basic and in AIT. Yes, you heard me right, a LEADER. I wrote to him on average of once a week while he was in basic training and enjoyed getting the letters from him. I could tell he was growing up and becoming the responsible young man that I knew he was capable of. Although I thought that the first letter from him would be cussing me for encouraging him to do this, it wasn't, in fact at some point he even agreed that he made the right decision for his future. Once he reached AIT, he had access to his cell phone and we were able to talk in person more than write letters. His days of having to write a letter were over......("thank god" were the words he used!) As the time passed by and I knew it was coming closer to the day when he would be able to come home for leave, prior to reporting to his home base, I wondered if he would want to return to "home" as he always knew it or would he just go straight to his first assignment? To my delight, he chose to come HOME.

He is here for about 10 days and we are really happy to have him here. I had to beg him to wear his uniform in to my office today, but he did it for me and he looked great! There were a lot of people looking forward to seeing him. I don't look forward to saying goodbye again, but know that it has to happen. My greatest hope, wish and prayer is that it will not be the last time I see him. ("Please god, keep him safe and bless all the other troops who fight to keep us free!") God Bless Our Troops!!

And as they say........the rest is history. He's finally home!