Two weeks from deployment, it’s hard to think of anything else.
Six different military packing lists are scattered around my house, none of which seem to be the right one. We spend our evenings hovered over checklists and calling banks and insurance companies, all in a futile attempt to be prepared for what’s to come.
As a novice military spouse, deployment is a fairly new experience for me.
Sure, my dad deployed a couple of times when I was a kid, but that’s not the same. Each day feels like a slow, steady approach to an inescapable end. To be honest, it’s hard not to go crazy.
Thank God there are people who are far more experienced than me. After sitting down with a seasoned military couple a few nights ago, I was finally able to grasp that deployment is not an end; it’s just a bump on a long, winding road. And what a relief that was.
They suggested using the year apart as a time to dream, to plan. Although they certainly didn’t sugar coat the realities of separation, they explained how it could be an excellent time to prioritize and plan a future together — the future that comes after Iraq, not just two weeks from now. That, I thought, sounds like something that could work for us.
I’m learning that this is what it’s all about. It’s finding what works for us, then doing it, even if what works for us when he’s here isn’t the same as what works for us when he’s across the pond.
Six different military packing lists are scattered around my house, none of which seem to be the right one. We spend our evenings hovered over checklists and calling banks and insurance companies, all in a futile attempt to be prepared for what’s to come.
As a novice military spouse, deployment is a fairly new experience for me.
Sure, my dad deployed a couple of times when I was a kid, but that’s not the same. Each day feels like a slow, steady approach to an inescapable end. To be honest, it’s hard not to go crazy.
Thank God there are people who are far more experienced than me. After sitting down with a seasoned military couple a few nights ago, I was finally able to grasp that deployment is not an end; it’s just a bump on a long, winding road. And what a relief that was.
They suggested using the year apart as a time to dream, to plan. Although they certainly didn’t sugar coat the realities of separation, they explained how it could be an excellent time to prioritize and plan a future together — the future that comes after Iraq, not just two weeks from now. That, I thought, sounds like something that could work for us.
I’m learning that this is what it’s all about. It’s finding what works for us, then doing it, even if what works for us when he’s here isn’t the same as what works for us when he’s across the pond.