Matt deploys to Afghanistan: The Last "In-Person" Goodbye

Monday, October 19, 2009

The Last "In-Person" Goodbye

Matthew was able to get the weekend off, which we weren't too sure of until Thursday or so. Aaron was working down in San Diego, so was able to grab him and bring him home. When they got home, Coty was already here, having been dropped off by another Marine buddy, Jared. Coty needed to be back for night shift by 3pm Sunday, so we had a small window of time to be with Matt for the weekend before we had to get on the road again... (That sounds like a familiar song...lol)

Saturday was filled with pumpkin patch prep at church, then Birthday dinner for little brother, Samuel. Then Matt wanted to go shopping for a laptop case. Sunday was filled again with church, where Pastor & congregation layed hands on Matt & prayed (Aaron and I were teaching sunday school, so could not be there, but are very blessed that our church family loves and supports him and us in this way,) lunch, a card & gift (new camera from Grammy & Uncle Ty,) then driving to Camp Pendleton to drop off Matt's friend and our adopted brother/son, Coty.

The Salvatico/Ledford/Sanchez clan went to Denny's for dinner off base and hung out for a while. We escorted Matt back to his barracks, hunted for pretty rocks for souveniers, and said our drawn out, somewhat tearful goodbyes. The drive was long and a bit tiring, but we would not have done anything different!

I have been learning that the deployment date is an ever-shifting, always-changing, fluid date. He is not leaving later, but earlier than the original day, as of this morning. Who knows what will actually be the day/time he deploys? I don't and he doesn't, really.

Thank you for your continued prayers. I have been instructed by Matt to not post his deploy date or his deploy address on the internet anywhere. Please email me privately if you want to send correspondence and/or care packages to him and his squadron.

2 comments:

KathOctober 19, 2009 at 2:08 PM
Keeping all of you in prayer!
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UnknownOctober 19, 2009 at 5:01 PM
Praying for Matt and all your family!
Love you all!!
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Psalm 18
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