CANCELED DEPLOYMENT!!

I wrote two versions of the story, take your pick.

Long story short. . . Dusty's deployment was canceled!!!

Long story not too long. . . Last Thursday night the kids and I packed up the van and headed up to Cedar City to spend Easter with some of Dusty's family. On Friday Dusty called from the 10 week training he was at in Indiana and said that they were reorganizing his unit and his deployment was canceled. In other words, he was coming home. WOW, we were overwhelmed with excitement and tried to stay calm. We were worried that he might get rerouted somewhere else in the mean time- so far we have lucked out. On Saturday he caught a flight home to Phoenix. We tried to see if he could fly into meet us in Southern Utah, but that didn't work out. He was required to fly into the same airport he flew out of and needed to report to work on Monday morning so was unable to meet us in Cedar City. We'll just say his homecoming was spent finding a shuttle home from the airport, calling the housing community to let him into our locked house and walking to the storage unit where his truck was stored to pick it up. However, when I returned the table was turned, I came home to a dozen roses, a gift card and Dr. Pepper:), thanks Dusty. We are so blessed to have Dusty home and are so thankful for everyones thoughts and prayers. All our family and friends have been so concerned and caring during these past few weeks of craziness. Thank You Everyone.

BTW
Dusty had two things to say after all was said and done, "I shaved my head for this" and "Can I have my two weeks back!"

Deployment

This past week has been completely CRAZY, to say the least. Last Thursday, March 26 Dusty received a phone call informing him that he had been "Tagged" for deployment. A 9 month deployment to Afghanistan with a 2 month training first in Indiana. He was to report in a mere 5 days (Wed. April 1st) to training. WOW, hello . . . we were completely flabbergasted. After coming to Luke Air Force Base, we had found that the medical department here deploys a lot. So we were gearing up for what we thought would be a 6 month deployment -sometime, which we were ok with and Dusty was happy to serve. We were always told the Air Force is 'family friendly' they only deploy for 3 to 6 months, however things have now changed. The ARMY is so stretched thin that his Air Force orders are filling an ARMY assignment. He will be gone 11 months including the training. We have been very frustrated with the length of deployment and the short notice, but are trying to stay positive, especially for the kids. We were able to record him reading stories for the kids to view at later dates, he gave them stuffed animals for them to sleep with and give hugs when they miss their Daddy. We had such a busy few days getting everything ready that we are still pretty much in shock, but he is gone now and has already started training. He began today, I spoke with him tonight he said the day was full of learning about Afghanistan and he has started to learn the language- he compared it to the MTC (Mission Training Center). At some point he will be able to use the internet feel free to leave him a comment. I actually set up a private blog for his deployment for the family, but will occasionally post info on this blog. Here is a couple of pics saying good bye at the air port. We are so proud of you Dusty for serving our country. We love you and we miss you.