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My ‘introduction’ to Kimmie did not go as I expected—we arrived in Bramwell at The Gross’s ( Kay’s Parents ) home in mid afternoon—Kimmie was taking her nap—we went upstairs where she was sleeping —Kay went over and gently woke her up—she was sleepy but she smiled at her Mommy —Kay picked her up and I came over and took Kimmie from her Mother’s arms—at which point she looked at me and her little face twisted into a very unhappy face and she started crying and wanting ‘down’—I put her down and she ran out of the room—I couldn’t believe how big she had gotten and she could ’ run’—not just walk. I again had tears in my eyes—certainly understanding why she would be afraid of this strange man who had picked her up. In all fairness—she had just woken up and here were all these people around her bed. We eventually worked everything out and explained to Kimmie that I was the ‘daddy’ in the picture that Kay had repeatedly shown her while I was gone. Our baby girl was now a beautiful, blonde, blue eyed little toddler who quickly learned that she could smile at her daddy and get anything she wanted!
The next couple of weeks were spent visiting with all known relatives—watching Kimmie and learning how to be a daddy while also learning how to ‘decompress’ from the past year. We made arrangements to have our things moved out of storage and arranged to have them shipped to Quantico and our new quarters at Thompson Park on Base. Meanwhile, we enjoyed our families and doing things together as a family of our own. Things were remarkably quiet—from what I had been used to—the Fourth of July rolled around—we had turned in fairly early —in the garage apt. the Gross’s had turned over to us while we were there.—-later
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