Surprise Deployment Party....SUCCESS!

Well, I have been planning a deployment party for Dee now for at least a month. It's been tough to keep the secret and I thought for sure he had some ideas and almost just gave up Friday night and confessed. But Jessie begged me to continue as planned.
We had the party at Zion Baptist, my parent's church, so I told Dee that my folks wanted us to serve at a Senior of the Year banquet. (which we have done before) and he was most gracious and agreed to help. So when Saturday rolled around, I was so glad to finally get the secret out.
We drove up in the parking lot full of familiar vehicles, but Dee wasn't paying attention. There was even a family member in the P/L and I managed to distract Dee until they got inside. We walked in, and everyone started clapping and cheering. It took a second to register, but the look on his face was priceless. It was worth all the planning and stress of keeping it secret. There were two banners hanging up wishing him well and everything was decorated USA/RED/WHITE/BLUE.
Family and Friends, some he hasn't seen in years, were there. His grandparents that are in a nursing home, were there. It was very special.
My parents cooked all the pork and chicken BBQ to feed 75 people! Thank you! So we ate a good meal and once finished, showed a Slide presentation of Dee's "Year in Review", set to our favorite song, "HOME" by Michael Buble.
Then Jessie had prepared a song, and changed to words somewhat. The original song is Hannah Montana called "I Miss You". But the song was written for the TV Show and when her Mom died. Jessie changed the words to say "I'll Miss you" and included him serving for our country. There were many people crying as she sang this to him. It was very touching. Jolie was supposed to sing too, but got shy, as usual. We tried to video it prior so both could do it, but the sound quality wasn't good.

Then we gave him a few presents later that afternoon. One was a new Canon Camera to take with him to Afghanistan. The other was two dog tags. One says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" and the other says, "Keep me close to your heart. I love you. Always and Forever, Lori"

Now the time is drawing near. Dee's deployment date has been moved up, but I'm hoping we can spend more time together now. He is getting more time off because he volunteered to go early. So we will find out tomorrow if he will have 10 straight days off, starting Friday. If so, we will leave Monday for a vacation. Haven't booked anywhere yet.

We will come back Saturday and that gives us the weekend to get the rest of his stuff packed and ready to go. Then Monday, he leaves for Indiana. He will be there for 50 days then go to Afghanistan. We will supposedly be able to go out there to visit for 4 days before he leaves.

Thank you to all that could attend the party. You truly made that day special for all of us.

Love,
Lori