There aren’t many things that warm my heart like a military homecoming, especially when there are children involved! Bryanna contacted me to capture the homecoming of her husband from his deployment to Spain. He was returning to his wife and 10 month old daughter, Anya. Eric had been deployed for 7 months and missed a ton of his daughters “firsts” like her first words, first Christmas, and first steps so you can imagine how ready he was to return to his family!

As with most homecomings, the arrival time changed at the last minute…so surprising right? You’ve got to love the awesome planning skills of the military. Luckily it worked out to our advantage since the original return time was going to be at night, when it would be dark and even colder than it was during the day, which was literally freezing with wind chill temperatures in the single digits and teens! Thankfully we had a warm place to wait for the bus full of marines to arrive, where I got to hang out with Bryanna and Anya for a couple of hours.

Anya is one of the cutest, happiest, most adorable babies ever. She is so easy going and didn’t fuss at all while we anxiously awaited the arrival of her daddy. When it was finally time for the bus to arrive we bundled up and headed outside to wait in the cold and wind. Right about the time we were starting to lose feeling in our fingers the bus pulled around the corner! I was so honored to be there to capture the reuniting of this adorable family. Here are some of my favorites from the day.

I love how Bryanna wrote “Sorry for Speeding We Get Our Marine Home Today!!!!” on the back window of their car!

Bryanna & Eric, thank you for allowing me to capture this special time in your life. Congratulations on having your family whole again and good luck on your next chapter in North Carolina!