While waiting for Toby my hilarious cousin Berkeley ran up the stairs and reenacted her own coming home from the mission. Very exciting moment, I love her!
Last night my darling little brother Toby got home from his mission in Madagascar. After a 32 hour flight he arrived home to a cheering and somewhat overwhelming crowd (with "He's Alive" signs in tow), poor Tobin. But boy were we glad to see him. We arrived and his flight was nowhere to be found on the arrival board so we played a guessing game that he had already arrived and luckily about 20 min later, there he was, coming down the escalator. What a great moment and another moment for me to cry like a baby or like grandma Knell (take your pick). He looks so good! 30 pounds lighter but looks great. He had the classic missionary garb on, including his tag and warn out shoes. He had his guitar strapped to his back and was walking down with one of his mission buddies who also returned. Many warm greetings, and a few pictures later we headed to find his luggage. Sadly that got a little lost on the way and is supposedly going to be here today. Hopefully they got it :)
After saying our goodbyes to everyone who came (picture down below) we headed over to the Stake center where President Bourne released Toby so, as Berkeley put it, "He can watch TV"
That was the best part. Toby was able to share some amazing experiences in that quick meeting with us. I am so proud and blessed to have such a spiritual brother (brothers really). Toby has grown so much and it's great to witness that. I can't wait to hear his Homecoming talk, on Mother's day! We all went home and were serenaded by Toby and the greatly missed guitar skills that he has. He played a few Malagasy songs and they were beautiful, we also sang some family classics, Weezer's "Say it ain't so" (I know, pathetic) and we got to just revel in his presence. Hopefully Toby gets some sleep in these next few days. He has a lot of adjusting to do but we will help him. It's so great to have him home!
The proud Mom and Dad and Toby
Thanks to all you who came!
Mark, Julie, Berkeley, Allie, Josh, Dee, Marissa, Rebecca, Carrie, Nate, Natasha and Elisa.
Thanks Nate for taking the picture!
Thanks Nate for taking the picture!
2 comments:
Yeah for Toby's safe return! Wish we could have been there! Thanks for posting about his arrival. I still remember the wave of emotion that hit me when I saw my family (especially your mom) there to greet me! What a great event! Much love to you all! See you soon (still don't know when)
wow! How nice! It looked like a pretty good turn out. he looks so much like Jesse in one of those photos. Weird. I hope he is doing well.
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