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Most of you know by now that we spent a magical Thanksgiving with Huck after all, thanks to the love of my crème de la crème of a baby sister Jeni and her outrageously generous family. When we pulled up to my parents’ house around 12:30 on Thanksgiving day to the sight of Huck in that familiar front yard wearing the same outfit he wore in one of his senior pictures, Troy and I thought we were seeing that photo come to life, for this is the way the surprised brain processes the impossible. To say he was a sight for sore eyes doesn’t quite describe the way my heart pounded out of my chest and tears shot out of my eyes. The weekend before I’d told my dad on the phone about my deeply physical urge to hug Huck, but that I had to wait a few more weeks for that. Instead I had 44 hours of intermittent hugs and hand holding and constant thanks giving.
Before the surprise of our lives, we had a couple of sweet days in Wichita with Troy’s fun family playing games, taking walks, and marveling at the mystery of children growing up. The only downfall of this whole plan was that in order to get out of FaceTiming from the airport, Huck told us he had a bad case of food poisoning, which is not what any mother wants to hear. To make up for that terrible lie, Aunt Jeni spared me the stress of his first airline travel alone (including nearly being stranded in Philadelphia), answering all of his questions about TSA, terminals, and gates. Huck’s brilliant Jayhawk cousin Lily picked him up from his very late flight in Kansas City with Chipotle dinner followed by a cuzzies slumber party in her Lawrence apartment before heading to Grandma and Grandpa’s on Thanksgiving Morn. Thank you to all of our beautiful family for such sweet, laughter-filled days and nights together during the most wonderful time of the year. And Huck, see you in 20 days!