A story of two surprises...

(The following event occurred the weekend of April 11th, 2009) 

Earlier this year my son surprised my Mom.  Now it took a little coordinating to pull it off but we did it and here's the story. 

~N~ was stationed at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, Tx.  He was at the point during his time in tech school where he was allowed to travel a certain distance off base.  He had submitted to leave the base for the weekend and we made plans for me to pick him up at the gate after I got off of work on Saturday. 

My parents called ~N~ during the week and asked if he wanted them to come up and go to lunch with him.  ~N~ said no that he was going to be on call and wouldn't be able to make it.  My parents were disappointed but understood and ~N~ just hoped that nothing went wrong with our plans.  He would hate to miss out on a chance to spend time with Gramma and Papa especially since we weren't 100% sure our plan was going to work.  

Saturday came and I was went to work.  We had already received confirmation that ~N~ was going to be able to come home.  Yea!!  As soon as I could after we closed, I headed out to go and pick up ~N~.  It's a 2 1/2 hour drive to go and get him and so off I went zipping along the highways to go and get my boy. 

My Dad knew that ~N~ was coming so the next morning he and my Mom went to church just as they normally do every Sunday.  My Mom was sitting where she usually sat but she noticed my Dad was standing nearer to the entryway.  Little did she know that he was standing as a lookout waiting for me to drop off ~N~.

I dropped ~N~ off at the pre-determined time and he headed into the church.  ~N~ had brought along some of my Mom's favorite soft peppermints and he walked up behind her with the bag of mints in hand.  He placed the bag against her arm and said, "Ma'am I believe you dropped these."  My Mom, being my Mom, took the bag without looking to see who had handed it to her and said, "Thank you."  Keep in mind my Mom did not bring any mints to church so there was no way she could have dropped any mints.  A couple of seconds pass and then my Mom looks up and sees ~N~ standing there.  "~N~!!!!!" my Mom exclaimed.  Needless to say Mom was very surprised!! 

Part 1 of the surprise had worked.

   

The rest of the family was already invited to come over and eat lunch at my parents house.  It was decided that ~N~ would just stay there and hide in one of the back rooms. 

One by one the rest of the family arrived and we arrived last.  As we gathered around the table my Mom said, "Okay, everyone bow your heads and close your eyes so we can pray" in a very loud voice.  I knew this was because she wanted to make sure ~N~ could hear us preparing to pray as that was his cue to come out but my Mom did not normally do that. 

Something to remember is that my parents' house is small.  In fact, ~N~ was probably less than 20 feet from where we were standing and I am quite confident that he could hear her.  The rest of the family looked at her because she was saying it so loudly but I knew that in just a few minutes everyone would understand why.

So we all bowed our heads and closed our eyes and were listening as my Dad began, "Dear Heavenly Father..." and then ~N~ walked into the living room and said, "Are y'all going to start without me?"  Everyone was completely surprised and very happy to see him!  We spent the rest of our time together that day laughing, eating and talking.  What a wonderful day spent with family. 

Part 2 of the surprise had worked. 

I took ~N~ back to the base and already had an idea for another surprise forming in my mind.  :) 

Aren't surprises fun?