I’ve always thought of the first day of deployment as the hardest.
Until the next hardest day.
The days leading up to the first day are like a bandaid being slowly pulled off your skin.
I’ve always been a rip the bandaid off sort or person, so the last several days have been hard. That slow, constant pain of knowing what is to come, but not being able to change it.
I actually looked forward to this day because it meant the pain of leaving would be over.
I kept saying, things will be better once you leave. It’s the impending knowledge of what’s to come, the tears, the children that cannot be comforted, that I was dreading.
And it happened just like I knew it would. Tears, kids snuggled in bed with me, questions I cannot answer, promises I cannot make.
I tell them we’ll be stronger because of this, we’ll be closer, we’ll do this together because we’re in this together.
And we will.
My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days. These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence. I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014. To read from the beginning, click here.
