Our good friends, the Barneys, have been anxiously waiting for their son, Layton, to return home from his mission to Taiwan. When I first met Amber a year ago, I could feel that there was some serious anger from her toward the church in taking away her most loving and happy son. I get it. While missions are great for the kids involved, the parents who are left behind feel the pain of their absence everyday. And as John and I have said before, our lives have been more difficult since our kids have been on missions than they ever were before (where are the promised blessings, I ask you?) I could tell in how she felt that she loved Layton as much as I love my kids.
So I was counting down the days with her as his return date neared. It went from months, to weeks, to days, to hours. I didn't want to interfere with the homecoming, but I offered to come and take pictures, because for us, that's been the hardest thing to do. It's one thing to welcome a child home from a mission, and it's another thing to get great pictures of the reunion, but it's nearly impossible to do both without staging a photo or asking someone to step back and not get the initial hug so that they can capture the moment on film.
I was surprised when she gladly accepted. And as it turned out, it was good I came because they were just going to wait for him at baggage claim, but having just met Hannah at the airport a few months prior, I knew where they could first see him and watch him come down the hall and hug him. So with camera in hand, John and I met them at the airport, directed them to the exit and we waited.
The Barneys are something else. They are kind of mean people to each other, so there was no love or excitement shared between any of them. In fact, when I asked the kids if they were excited to see Layton, two of them said, "This day is really just Amber's day." Woah....
Because Ryan is a pilot, he has all kinds of apps that allow him to chart exactly where flights are at any given moment. So we knew when he was 45 minutes out, and 20 minutes out, and 5 minutes out. And when he had landed.
It only took a few minutes for him to start coming down the exit ramp. And it was such a beautiful moment.
There's seriously nothing like missionary homecomings. I always wonder what other passengers think (in non-Mormon communities)--what is all the excitement?
And for the Barneys, this was a bitter sweet moment. Their next two boys don't seem at all interested in serving mission, or in even staying active in the church, and their three girls haven't expressed any desire to serve missions. So this just might be it for them ;-(
And a couple of days later, I received this text from Amber:
So I was counting down the days with her as his return date neared. It went from months, to weeks, to days, to hours. I didn't want to interfere with the homecoming, but I offered to come and take pictures, because for us, that's been the hardest thing to do. It's one thing to welcome a child home from a mission, and it's another thing to get great pictures of the reunion, but it's nearly impossible to do both without staging a photo or asking someone to step back and not get the initial hug so that they can capture the moment on film.
I was surprised when she gladly accepted. And as it turned out, it was good I came because they were just going to wait for him at baggage claim, but having just met Hannah at the airport a few months prior, I knew where they could first see him and watch him come down the hall and hug him. So with camera in hand, John and I met them at the airport, directed them to the exit and we waited.
The Barneys are something else. They are kind of mean people to each other, so there was no love or excitement shared between any of them. In fact, when I asked the kids if they were excited to see Layton, two of them said, "This day is really just Amber's day." Woah....
Because Ryan is a pilot, he has all kinds of apps that allow him to chart exactly where flights are at any given moment. So we knew when he was 45 minutes out, and 20 minutes out, and 5 minutes out. And when he had landed.
It only took a few minutes for him to start coming down the exit ramp. And it was such a beautiful moment.
There's seriously nothing like missionary homecomings. I always wonder what other passengers think (in non-Mormon communities)--what is all the excitement?
And for the Barneys, this was a bitter sweet moment. Their next two boys don't seem at all interested in serving mission, or in even staying active in the church, and their three girls haven't expressed any desire to serve missions. So this just might be it for them ;-(
And a couple of days later, I received this text from Amber:
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