2 Weeks and Counting

We're gearing up and getting ready in our house, if you're a Military Spouse you know what I mean, Deployment. This daunting one word has been hanging over our house for around 4 months and the time for it to appear and take it's affect starts soon, too soon. If you've been through a Deployment you know what I mean, it seems as if the things that need to be done and the things that you would like to do before your Spouse leaves is all of a sudden getting down to last straw or down to the wire! YIKES...where did the days go!

Lists have been made for me by the Major for bills, etc. Wills and Powers of Attorneys have been done, major things around the house that needed to be done are done with a few last appointments getting done this week.

Time together as a family during these last few days are priceless, you as a Spouse want to spend your every waken hour with your Spouse before he leaves while your two teens try not to talk or mention the word Deployment because they began to fill their eyes with tears. You find yourself eating at all of the Spouse's favortie Restaurants because you know that all he'll be eating for the next months will be the Dining Facility where he'll be deployed at. You suddenly find yourself liking to wash clothes because you know that you want be washing his for awhile and when you make the bed in the morning you realize that his side want be untucked for much longer. You sit by him whenever you can and hold his hand whenever possible because you know that in a few days you'll long to touch him, and you want to remember his touch for as long as you can. You look at the coffee pot when you are putting up the dishes out of the dishwasher and think that there will not be a lot of coffee making going on because unlike your spouse you don't have to have coffee in order to survive your day, but you also know that you'll miss that little bit of coffee that he leaves in the pot every morning just for you so that you can have a cup. You begin to think of all the things that he'll miss while he's away and you automatically begin to add them up and start charging up the video camera.

You've been down this road before and you remember what you've learned through the last Deployments: You've learned to be more independent, you've learned to have more grace, you've lost anxiety and gained patience, you've grown a much closer and special relationship with your children, you've gone through something that not everyone gets to experience, you've gained more self-esteem and you're not afraid or ashamed to ask for help if you know you can't do it on your own.

Deployment, who knew that one little word could be so big and mean so much.