Florida's a GO!

Yesterday was the day we were supposed to get our call from Andrew saying that he got his GO for Swamps and would be graduating this coming Friday! I was lucky enough to have a few friends who have had soldiers go through Ranger School before, so I knew that I probably shouldn't expect a call until dinner time. This made the day go by so slowly, but I wasn't stressed or worried at all during the afternoon when I hadn't heard from Andrew yet.

It was Sunday so Andrew's sister and her family were over for Sunday Night dinner after Church and his brother came over for a little while as well. I was calm until about 7:30 when dinner was over and I still hadn't heard a peep. I can't even tell you all of the crazy things that were going through my mind at that point. As everyone started to leave around nine, I was absolutely beside myself. I didn't want to admit to myself that I was thinking the WORST "recycle" but I was... and I couldn't shake that idea. I tried to keep positive and kept reminding myself that this is RANGER SCHOOL, nothing is a given and if they pissed the RIs off they could have taken away their phone privileges. I was dreading the idea of work this morning without having heard from Andrew.

Around 10 Mrs. Dolan and I decided to open a bottle of wine and play cards to get our minds off of it. She called her best friend Dottie and said we hadn't heard from Andrew yet and asked for prayers. We played a round of Skip-bo and I honestly don't even remember who won, but at 10:13 my phone started BLASTING (obviously I had it on the loudest possible setting) with an unknown number! I screamed and jumped up from the table! I was so excited! I put it on speaker and screamed "ANDREW?!?"

"Heeeeeey, Honey!" He sounded wonderful! I started absolutely bawling! I've never ever cried happy tears in my life, but I did, I just was sobbing as I asked "did you get your Go?!" even though the tone of his voice told me the answer before I even asked. I'll never forget how he answered: "Of course I did, girl!" More happy tears as his mom and I embraced!!

I honestly don't remember anything else about that conversation... except for the fact that it was the BEST phone call of my entire life... and that's saying something since it only lasted 3 minutes and 51 seconds!

This morning on my way to work, I saw this sign Andrew's mom left on the door! I can't remember the last time I was this happy!

I love that she signed it "Mom"!

Ranger School is really over! None of this seems real! So now I have lots of packing to get done, and I'm heading out of here tomorrow afternoon to surprise MY RANGER!!!!!!!!!!