8 months left

We are in the 8 month mark until Matt comes home. Yes, I know Obama announced the other day that all troops in Iraq will be home for the holidays, but don't count all your chickens yet. Few things, Matt, at that point, will have been deployed for still less than 6 months. I highly doubt that they will release him when not even half of his deployment is left. Next, there is still plenty of things that have to be done or need to be done in Afghanistan, and this is where I think Matt will be going to next, that they will just transfer Matt's deployment team straight to Afghanistan. Also, lets just say Matt does come home. He has a high chance of being re-deployed again any time because he did not complete a full year deployment, and the "re-deploy" would be for another full year. It doesn't matter that he had already done a 5.5 month deployment, they won't care, to them he hasn't done a year deployment. So we are hoping that he goes straight to Afghanistan so that when he comes home in July he will be home for a while.

If he does come home, that would be great. Don't get me wrong I would love for Matt to come home for Christmas or just thereafter. I want him to get to know his son and to really know he has a son because to him Mason still doesn't seem all that real in a way because he has barely spent time with Mace.  But I really don't think he will be coming home and I don't want to get my hopes up either. So to answer all of your questions, because I have been getting many questions, we don't know what is going on yet and these are the options. I will let everyone know when/if we hear anything. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers and keep them coming.