WELCOME HOME!

The best part about leaving? Coming back.

- BY Reader's Digest Readers

Reporting for Daddy Duty

After a 10-month tour in Afghanistan, my son, Christopher, was reunited with his daughter, Catherine. They hadn’t seen each other since she was 9 months old. Amid all the hugging and kissing at the airport, Catherine was staring at her dad, trying to figure out who he was. When Christopher noticed her quietly looking at him, he said, “Let’s take a walk and get reacquainted.” He took her tiny hand and led her around the terminal. Twenty minutes later, daddy and daughter returned to the group laughing, the best of friends.

—DOROTHY GIEBEL Clifton Park, NY

Bringing Home the Baking

I studied education at the University of Colorado, more than 1,000 miles from my home in Illinois, so I didn’t get to visit my family often. When I came home after my first semester, I stepped in the door and all my brothers enthusiastically called out requests for their favorite recipes of mine that they'd been craving. Chocolate chip cookies. Quiche Lorraine. Blueberry coffee cake. A huge ice cream sundae we called the Kitchen Sink. My mom greeted me with a laugh, saying, “I guess they missed you.”

—JODY EMERY Lafayette, CO

Doggone It!

Whether you're gone for five weeks or five minutes, a dog will meet your return with equal enthusiasm. My beagle was no exception when I came home from the hospital after giving birth. She was wriggling around, wagging her tail and barking ... until she heard the baby in the carrier I'd set on the kitchen table. She jumped on a chair, sniffed around, looked at the baby, then whipped around with betrayal in her big puppy eyes as if to say, “How could you?”

—LAURIE STRAND Scottsdale, AZ

A Banner Return