HE'S HOME!! :D

He's home! I never thought it would happen but it did! And I know that you hear this on pretty much every success story, but girls, it's totally worth the wait! He's the same guy I fell in love with before the mission, but he's grown so much spiritually. He's matured so much too! He's a full blown MAN. And a foxy one at that might I add :D So for those of you who do not know how I met Tyler and all that jazz, you can read Our Story (: Now are you ready to rumble!?? Drum roll please!!!!

So here I am, the morning Tyler gets home. It's 5 a.m., and after laying in bed awake for over and hour and a half, I finally decide it would be okay for me to start getting ready for the day. I gave myself plenty of time to get ready before we had to leave the house at 7:30. Because hey, I had to look good right?! So I start by doing my hair first. I start to curl it and I nearly dropped my curling iron in my lap multiple times because my palms were so sweaty from being nervous! Oh and did I mention that my tummy was all crazy since the night before? It decided to get all outta wack and nervous before I went to bed. I basically felt like I was on a rollercoaster, and you do that really big drop straight down and your tummy tickles like crazy. You know the one? Yeah, that's how my stomach felt ALL morning long! So I get my hair done, then I decide to start getting my outfit on. And then I did my makeup very last. Before I know it, it's time to leave! 

My mom and I head to the car at 7:30, giving us three hours to get to the airport. We get up to Pleasant Grove and we decided it was a good area to put up my banner over the highway (: So my mom and I find an overpass with a fence to tie it to, and we pull the car over. It was funny, because these construction guys were pulled over in the same area, and they were looking at us like, "ummm what the heck are you guys doing?" and I was just like let's get this baby up!! So we get the poster all tied up in the freezing wind, and then we're on our way again. (So if you go through Pleasant Grove on the highway heading toward provo, look for my sign!) So pretty soon we're pulling up the airport to park, and it's only 9:45. His flight is supposed to get in at 10:35. So I'm glad that I have time to try to calm myself down, and go to the restroom and what not. His family was already there when we got into the airport, so we all just hung around and talked and visited. I'm so glad his family was there to talk to me and keep me distracted, it helped my tummy out A LOT. I probably checked the flight status on the screen at least a billion times. And eventually it said "Delta 1105 from Atlanta: Arrived"

So that's when I'm thinking "Holy crap he's here! He's really here!?" So his parents decide to walk up the stairs next to the escalator so that they can give him the first hugs and they'll come down the escalator with him. My mom and I are standing with his two sisters, his little brother, his nephew, his sisters boyfriend Tanner, and their foreign exchange student at the bottom of the escalator just waiting. Suddenly I see his mom run over and hug someone, so Tanner and I are both thinking it's him! But then we realize it's a lady with hair exactly like hers going to hug some random guy. So we wait some more, and some more. And then suddenly, he's there! He's at the top of the stairs and he's hugging his mom and his dad and I just stand there frozen. My mind is going like a million miles a second. I never imagined him actually being home, but there he is, right in front of me! No more pictures, or letters, he's actually HERE! He gets on the escalator with his parents and heads toward us, and he smiles at me and waves :) OH MY GOSH HE'S ADORABLE!! He gets to the bottom and I decided I would just wait for him to come to me just in case he changed his mind and was too nervous to hug me. He hugs his sisters and his brother and then he shakes hands with the foreign exchange student and gives her a cell phone that his parents sent for her (he met her parents in Sao Paulo at the airport and visited with them for a few hours) and then he heads over to me and gives me a hug. Holy crap girls, it was the best hug I've ever had. It wasn't one of those super long hugs, it was just perfect. Because I didn't want to overstep, I know he's still nervous, and I know he isn't released, so I was just happy to get a hug at all. That hug alone, was totally worth the two years of waiting. I've never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life!

It was funny because he was being sort of quiet, seemed a little shell shocked from the whole thing. So we go over and grab his luggage. There was a man who came with his son and daughter in law to meet Tyler at the airport because he brought some stuff from Brazil to give to his daughter in law (she's from brazil and her family sent stuff to her through Tyler.) So he gets the stuff out to them and then he's standing there and he goes "well I guess we should go now?" We head toward the parking garage and he walks next to me, so we talk a little bit, I ask how his flight was and just some other short conversational things. His dad says something funny to him and then he goes "wow mr. serious guy now huh?" And I was like "seriously, you haven't even laughed yet." And he just kind of smiles and says "I'm kind of freaking out." Which was just so cute of him (: he was nervous and exhausted and still trying to get used to talking in English instead of Portuguese. He has a cute accent that you can barely hear, but it's there, and I love it. And the poor boy steps outside in the parking garage and starts to freeze, he's used to 90 + weather in Brazil, so I know he's going to have to adjust to the weather for a while. 

So then we head to Village Inn to get something to eat with all of this family. My stomach has settled down but I still don't trust it to really eat much. And Tyler wasn't hungry, so he didn't order anything. But he sat next to me at the restaurant and picked things off my plate to eat. He was SO excited that they had a TV on with football playing, it was so funny to just sit and watch him and how he was reacting to things.

We headed to the mall afterward so that he could get some new pants (he lost weight, so none of his old pants will fit) And while we were in some of the stores looking for pants he would walk by me he would always touch my arm or my back when he passed, just a little sign that he knew I was there and he wasn't all weird about touching me even though it's been drilled into his head for two years. Awe :) he's just adorable girls!! GAHHH! So anywho, we get some pants for him and then his dad's like well all we have to do other than this is stop at the distribution center to get him some new garments before we head home, and we're going to the stake center as soon as we get to town, so just meet us there. And his dad's like "quick give her a hug before we leave." lol, so we hugged again, oh my gosh I love hugging that boy!

So off we go in the car again for another two hour drive home. It went a LOT faster than the one coming up though, so it was okay. We got to the stake center and my uncle was there to release him. So they take him off into the office and about forty minutes later he comes out, officially released and a brand new man (: We talked to my uncle for a few minutes and then we started to head out of the building with my mom and his parents. And as I walked out the door I went to fold my arms because it was so cold outside, but he reached up and grabbed my hand like it was no big deal, hahaha, I think I was more shocked about it than he was, and it was great. You never realize how much you love holding hands with someone until you don't have anyone to hold hands with anymore. And his hands fit perfectly with mine, like always ♥

Then his family was loading up into the car to head home. It was only about 5pm at this time, but he had been up for about 28 hours because he left Brazil the day before and had a long flight back. I could tell he was exhausted so I told him I would see him later, that he could go home and get some sleep. But he said he didn't want to go to bed until later and he wanted me to come to his house to hang out more. So we went to his house and got his luggage into his room and began unpacking some of his things. He sort of just started unloading stuff and didn't say a lot, so I just helped him put things in his closet and what not. Pretty soon his mom and his sister headed up stairs to do something else. Alone at last! And it literally didn't take longer than two minutes for him to pull me over to him and kiss me :D Best kiss ever! It was perfect. Zero awkwardness, most amazing kiss that I will never forget. We've been talking about our "second first kiss" for a while now, and how excited we both were for it. But I really didn't expect it so soon after his release, I figured maybe at the very end of the night when I headed home, but boy he didn't waste any time at all, and that is definitely fine by me! 

After that his family ended up going to the high school to watch his little brother's first home scrimmage for basketball, but Tyler was so tired and not ready for a ton of people around him at the time, so he stayed home. I asked him again if he wanted to get some sleep, but he told me he wanted to stay up to get himself back on a good time schedule, and he really didn't want to be alone. So my mom and I took him to get something to eat, and then we went back to my house and picked up my car, and then he and I headed back to his house. It was just like old times! We talked, about just whatever came to our minds at the time, and then he was so excited to watch sports center! So we went and cuddled on the couch and watched some TV for a while, he tickled my arms like he used to (oh my GOSH I missed that!) and I just let him lay in my lap and relax (:

It's crazy to think that he's really back for good now. I really feel like I needed to get as much time with him as possible because it seems like he would be leaving again soon and I wouldn't see him for another two years. But he's back for good now and I can see him everyday like I did before his mission. His family is inviting me over for breakfast every morning and just getting back into old routines where I'm there all day every day with them. And they've always treated me like family, and I really love that about them, they're so great to me. I can't even explain to you how happy I am right now. He's amazing, and I missed him so much. And now he's home and he's never leaving me again :D Two years is a long time, but not at all long enough to make me forget how much I love this boy, I'd do just about anything for him, and he hasn't let me forget how thankful he is for everything I've done for him during the mission, and how lucky he is to have me here still when he got home. Ahhhh (: He's home!