Oldies but goodies

*****I realize the blog is called Laughing Leah Loves Lilies and I have TULIPS in the new banner, but the tulips are to go with the spring theme and have nothing to do with the title...LOL!*****

Sorry, couldn't resist a 2nd installment!

I mentioned yesterday that some will be funny, and some will be sweet, so I figured that since yesterday took care of the "funny", today I'd focus on the "sweet".

Some background for this picture: Emily's Uncle Corey (my BIL) had left for Iraq with his National Guard unit when Emily was only 11 months old. She hadn't seen him or talked to him (because of the time difference, his phone calls home would fall in the middle of the night) since that time. Emily had been so young when he left, and Dan and I were very concerned that she wouldn't have any idea who he was once he returned, so we took a picture of him and put it on the fridge at her eye level and told her daily that it was Uncle Corey and had her give the picture kisses, etc. When she was 20 months old, he got to come home for 2 weeks and we made a big deal to Emily about how Uncle Corey was coming home to see us. When the day finally came, I walked into my IL's house extremely excited to see Corey, but apprehensive as to how Emily would react (and worried that a negative reaction would offend and disappoint Corey!). Corey is 6ft 4in or so, and was basically a stranger to her, so I was convinced she was going to shy away from him, but he sat down on the bed, said hello to her and held out his arms, and she reached right over from her daddy's arms and into Uncle Corey's and gave him a good long squeeze. I took this picture through tear-filled eyes (the same way I type this post as I'm remembering the moment!):


Emily's always been the quickest to get excited at the chance to see Uncle Corey, and is the first to question how he's doing if we haven't seen him in awhile. I'm so thankful that even though he was missing from nearly a full year of her life (after his two week visit home, he had to return for another 2.5 months before coming home for good), it didn't affect her ability to bond with him, or his with her.