If you have read my “about me" portion of this blog, you will know that among the many things, I am also an Army Wife. When we first started out in this wonderful career of my husbands, we only had one child, Brandon Jr. He was 1 when my husband first deployed, and I’ll be honest; I knew not a darn thing about the Army. It wasn’t until my husband’s name came down in a Red Message (a message containing information about casualties) did I understand that maybe I needed to find out what this so called "FRG" thing is all about, I mean they sure as heck weren’t coming to find out what I was about. So, breaking the boundaries of my comfort zone, I ventured out into my small community in Europe, became a volunteer, learned about Points of contacts, Army Community Center, Family Readiness Group, and well where my husband Battalion was, and what an FRL does. Almost 2 years later, deployment number two rolls around. And this time, I have 3 year old Junior, and 5 month old Seann. I felt a little more prepared this time because I was very involved with the FRG and the community and I knew my resources. That deployment was a 14 month'er by the way, so the issue I ran into there was, I fell into a slump, where I didn’t want to leave the house, I didn’t really want to go out with friends. I just wanted to be at home with my kids and well wait by the phone. After about 5 months I realized maybe that wasn’t too healthy for me or the kids, so I started volunteering as Dental Assistant at the clinic. I made new friends, and started going out more. Then I got a paid position in my community which kept me busy through the rest of the deployment. Time flew. Now, I am preparing for deployment number 3. This time I have Junior now 5, Seann now 2 and baby Isaac 5 months, amazing how the kids just keep coming... I don’t know why this happens, hmm I need to Google that? Anyways, now in the job position I am in, I know just about every resource in the community available to me, and I have so many activities to attend. I feel well prepared for the deployment... Maybe even a little too prepared, which has given me a sense of anxiety. I mean, there is such a thing as being "too" prepared? I’ve already started preparing the house to function as a single parent, developing my systems and I have even proposed to my Deployment Wife. Just to ease your raised eyebrow, a deployment wife is something a good friend and I talked about, where we take care of each other. If something happens to me while my husband is away, she will have the ability to take care of my kids until a family member can come over and get them, and vice-versa. We also call each other once a day to unload our issues of the last 24 hours. We give each other encouragement, support and well sisterly love. Like I said, Deployment Wife. So, now I sit and wait..... Everything feels ready, or very much near it, and now the waiting game starts.... I hate the waiting game... It gives me more time to think of things to do to keep busy, and more things that he will miss while he is away.
*Sigh*
The Army Life.
