Having a Son......Far From Home.

It was a Monday morning, the 23 of May of this year, that I got to find out the wonderful news about the sex of Rachel and I's upcoming baby. I was sitting Top 3 (or Operations Supervisor...depends on who you ask) for our Fighter Squadrons daily activity. Being a Top 3 is kind of nice in that I get to sit at a desk and do some "administrative" related things and also catch up on some emails and simply hang out in the Squadron talking to the numerous people who come and go. This night was extra special however. It was special because I knew that after my shift was over, I was going straight to the Morale tent in order to use Skype video to call Rachel and find out the sex.

Rachel was in Arizona visiting the family out there. They had been having a wonderful week and I'm sure like myself, they were anxious to find out what little Mango was going to be. Rachel and Toni (her Mother) had found a place that does ultrasounds on the weekends; perfect because it allowed Rachel's family to be a part of a very special event in pregnancy that I was unable to be at and it let Rachel and I coordinate a time that I could be present via the Internet to see what Mango was going to be. I had worked with the schedulers to ensure that I was available on Sunday afternoon Arizona time (about 3AM here in Afghanistan). That night, as I sat there "running" our small piece of the Afghanistan War, it was tough to stay focused on the job at hand when I had such an exciting event coming up in the near future. Nearly ever person in our Squadron commented on how jubilant I was and how "slap-happy" I was all evening. The first 6 hours of my shift went by quickly; the last two hours it was like time had slowed down to quarter speed and the hours dragged on. Finally, at 0230AM my replacement (Capt Mike "Papa" Roche) FINALLY rolled in to replace me. Well, Papa, God Bless him, likes to take his sweet old time upon arriving. He'll meander around the Squadron, saying hi, grabbing coffee, a bagel, and whatever other care package item he can get his hand on. After explaining to Papa that "dude, seriously...you need to sit down now and take over", he got the drift that I was in a hurry to get out of here. After pretty much blowing off all pertinent info about the 74 FS's current activities in the War, I sprinted out of the Squadron. I nearly face-planted running my 225lbs (year, that's right....225) frame down the stairs as quickly as possible. Due to my superior and lighting quick skills, I was able to catch myself just in time and more importantly, save my lap top from certain destruction. As Rachel knows, if I would of broken yet another lap top, I would of killed every Taliban in this country and the War would be over.....maybe that would of been a good thing? Anyhow, after regrouping, and of course making sure nobody saw my near catastrophe, I ran down to the Morale tent.

Barging into the Morale tent, I was pleasantly surprised that it was empty. This was a good thing. I seem to have a problem with electronics when everyone else's seems to work fine. This was yet again the case. After 10 minutes of saying things I hope my child never hears me say, I was finally up and running on Skype. I dialed Rachel's skype number and it rang. After what seemed like eternity, there was my precious love, saying hello to me on the other end. My 2 minutes of good fortune quickly turned bad as I immediately noticed my skype screen was "freezing"....meaning yet again, the electronic God's were laughing at me and making the stuff just not work like it's supposed. So I more or less tell Rachel to dispense with the hello's and let's get down to it and open up this envelope....my time is a running out on this Internet connection.

So I sat there, nearly 10,000 miles away from my Love and awaited her to open the envelope. Just like our initial pregnancy test, Rachel gave me the honor of finding out first, something I truly cherish. As the screen got fuzzy and jumped around with it's 10second delay, Rachel held up a picture right to the camera. Now I have 20/15 vision, but me being able to tell what this little creation was just wasn't going to happen. I felt awful and dejected, but kept squinting and straining to see what our little Mango was going to be. Rachel asked me what it was and I simply said "I can't tell" or something like that. So Rachel then turns it around and right when I didn't think I could stand the wait any longer, she says, "it's a boy". The feeling that came over me was unlike anything I've ever experienced. My eyes welled up and my pride soared; not only had I "done my part" and gotten Rachel pregnant, but this little angel was going to be a boy! As many pilots say, I had "snuck one by the goalie" since most fighter pilots have girls and we were having a boy. Nearly simultaneously as this emotional and happy event is taking place, the electronic God's crush my moment and totally freeze Rachel's image right as tears and radiant beams from her beautiful face are streaming out of my computer 10 thousand miles away. I slammed down my screen and ran back towards our fighter squadron to immediately get in touch with Rachel via a land-line. As luck would have it, Rachel did not answer on the my first attempt and my feeling of being a worthless husband and now father skyrocketed as not only was I not there for this event, but now I wasn't even able to effectively speak with my wife. I immediately redialed the number and this time, there was my best-friends voice on the other end and both our voices quivered in happiness and heartfelt emotion at the "little man" we were now going to bring into the world.

After the conversation with Rachel, I knew it was time to pass the word to family. After all that was accomplished, I went back up to the Squadron. Walking into the Squadron, it took less than 3 seconds for people to notice something magical had taken place. My smile was ear to ear and I just couldn't stop smiling. I told everyone and then I told them again and again. Hands were shaken, congrats were passed, names were already being offered. I basked in the joy of being an expectant father of a Son. I truly thought we were going to have a girl and I was SO happy with that. I can only hope that God will bless Rachel and I again with another child and I honestly hope it's a girl. However, with so many contributing factors such as my profession, more girls in the family than boys, and the old school thought of having my oldest offspring be the "man of the house" when I'm gone, I was beyond excited our firstborn was going to be a boy and the Mitchell name will carry on.

After all the initial congrats, it was time to celebrate the best I could. I grabbed my pipe and a near-beer and headed out to "The Winchester", a little smoke area we have here. Don't worry, I'm not a smoker, but on special occasions, I will light up a cigar or pipe and bask in the moment and reflect. Several of the guys wanted to be around; people tend to feed off other people's emotion and my emotion was all good on this morning.

So here we are. That was nearly two months ago and I'm just now writing about it. The events over here have been many since then, some of them not good for me. However, know that there is not a day that goes by where I don't think about my Rachel and our Son. My heart beams with joy and I can't wait to welcome OUR SON into the world!