17 weeks down

At least twice a week I get told, "I don't know how you do it" or "you are such a strong women, I couldn't do that". I don't know about all of that. I get emotional and moody. I cry, stress out, want my husband home, have pity parties, etc. I don't feel all that strong a lot of the time. But, I do know where people are coming from. It is difficult to be in this lifestyle (yes, I call it a lifestyle, not just my husbands job. That is how we roll). But, it isn't too difficult for me. Most of the time, I actually love being an Army wife! Deployments are tough, much tougher than you can even imagine, but depedning on the job your husband has, you can get used to some smaller seperations, and it can help.

My kids, to me, are the strong ones. They miss their dad, don't quite understand, act out sometimes because of it (and that results in getting in trouble), and they just want to do things with their dad. But, for the past 17 weeks, they have been pretty normal! Our oldest has his moments of sadness and longing for his dad, and our youngest talks about daddy all of the time and wants to know why work never ends, but they continue on. We talk about dad just about all of the time, but I don't mind, I could talk about him forever! ;)

I just want to say this. It is tough, but if you are a military spouse, family member or just a friend you can get through this, and it will result in a great ending, homecoming... Don't dwell on the fact that your loved one is gone, stay busy and keep your life going.