Welcome to my crazy life

Just a quick welcome from me to you and a thank you for reading and following along on the crazy road which I call my life. Here you will be able to follow along the ups and downs of our little family's life and adventures as we grow, learn and travel. Plus I will give up some advice on things I have done that seemed to have helped with getting my daughter and son to learn different functions, from sleeping through the night to eating all her food and beyond. Also if you have a question please feel free to leave it in a comment and I will happily make a post just to answer your question. Also keep a look out for new and old product reviews as well as special events. Here's to the family life and to a crazy adventure.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Dealing with Deployment

As you all know I am a proud military wife who is deeply in love with her Marine, but the scariest and hardest thing to deal with is deployment.  You have to deal with a wide range of emotions starting as soon as they come home and break the news to you.  Let me break it down for you, so you get told the news and you face disbelief and sadness.  Then you have anxiety over the next couple months while they go to training away from home and you go to briefs of what to expect, read emails about the up coming deployment and cry a little because its all getting to real to fast.  Then you get the actual leave date and you break down as you get the address for where you can send care packages and the packing list of what they need to take with them.  Then over the next days while you are anticipating the leave date every time he interacts with the kids or mentions leaving, even to the store, you break down a little and cry.  Then you start stressing out over every thing you want them to get done before they leave, that probably wont get done, but that is okay becuase you just want to be around them. You help them pack into the wee hours of the morning the night before they leave and when they say "Alright lets go to bed," you tear up and probably wont sleep that night because you don't want the next day to come.  When it does come you give yourself a pep talk to be strong and that they will be home before you know it, but you get to base and they get all their gear out and then it hits you big time, it time for them to leave and you don't want them to. You are tearing up and trying to suck it up as he says bye to the kids and then its time for your good bye and you lose it complete, balling your eyes out, uncontrolled.  You kiss him and hug him and hold tight trying to make him stay just a little longer but inevitably you have to let go and they have to go thru that gate and leave the normal behind to serve their country.  It is the most heart wrenching thing you could ever go through, and we just did.

Its only been a few days since they left and its tough to think that they are not coming home for 7 months but this is deployment, welcome to it.  There are going to be nights like that first one when you can't look at their side of the bed with out crying, or look at a picture of him or the 2 of you without tearing up, but that is okay.  While they are away protecting us we must in essence protect them by keeping up the home front and from day one of them being gone you must be getting ready for their return.

Keeping busy is the key to getting the days to pass and for me I have an 18 month old and a newborn baby to keep me on my toes.  Between taking care of them, healing, working on blankets, cleaning and taking care of our animals; I think I will be plenty busy.  I have plenty of art projects to get done plus a little girl to teach and potty train and a little boy to help thru his first year of life.  I also have some new and old friends to hang out with that I am so thankful for and can't wait to spend time with all of them.  Its not going to be easy, being away from your husband for 7 months can make you go crazy, but the support team I have behind me and am part of in return is amazing, which is the second part of making it through deployment with sanity semi intact. 

I don't mean to ramble on but I want to help shied a little light on what us military wives go through when handling deployment so that those who will most likely never deal with this part of life and I want to help you help us in understanding why we might be a little short when talking about certain things or just randomly being a little more cranky than usual.  So remember that we are worried about our husbands and friends who are deployed, risking their life for all of us to do what we want to do, and we are on edge holding down the home front. 

Its going to be a long 7 months but we will make it through and will rejoice the day we see them walking into that hanger so happy just to see us standing there.  That is what I am looking forward to and I can't wait for that day to get here.  To finish this I ask that y'all keep our troops in your prayers as they complete this deployment we want our marines home safe and sound.  Thank you all for your support over these next months and I look forward to keeping you updated on the deployment and on all the projects I will be doing too.  Love to you all.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

oh Ashley.. I teared up reading this. It sucks being away from Hubby. Thank you to your husband for fighting for us, and thank you for being that support for your Hubby.

LeiShell said...

I can't imagine having a new baby and wanting to share all those firsts with your hubby first hand but can't. I am praying for you to keep strong during these months ahead and that you find lots of joy in your two children. Much love to you and your hubby. He is so appreciated.