One Year Ago Our Hearts Were Broken

This was my post from one year ago today. Today we celebrated two of my favorite little girls (show below broken hearted) birthdays. This year we celebrate knowing that there is an end in sight! On our one year anniversary of our battalions deployment and our families being seperated we know that a few short months from now it's all going to be over with and we will have our soldiers back!

Remember to be grateful for every moment you have with your families!

So here it is. From May 2, 2008:


****DISCLAIMER~ Please read and agree to the terms and conditions before proceeding to read this blog. Blogger is not responsible for swollen eyes, cost of Kleenex or angry feelings. This blogger assumes no responsibility for the words that are typed on this blog tonight. By reading this entry you understand that you are stepping into a very personal part of said bloggers life and emotions and you will respect that privilege and use it wisely. Blogger requests that anyone who does not support our troops please exit this page immediately and do not return. Blogger wants all readers to proceed with caution as she does not know where this blog will lead. It will not be very funny and is not to be taken lightly. If you agree to these terms and conditions please click accept to continue. If not please click disagree. (or even just for fun click disagree but remember to come back, lol)
IF YOU AGREE CLICK HERE
IF YOU DISAGREE CLICK HERE
No seriously click disagree it's funny.



Have you ever stopped long enough in your life to look around. To really really look at other people? Have you wondered how much families really care about each other and how much love they have to give? I often see people and think to myself (or maybe to my friends) how unlikely a couple looks together and wonder how their life really is behind closed doors. Or have you seen that group of teenage kids walking down the street all in black with crazy hair and every possible visible pierced part of their body shining with metal studs and wondered where on earth their parents were when they did that? Maybe Dad had spent four years of their teenage years deployed and Mom was wise enough to choose battles that protected their safety and let them make harmless stupid mistakes that they might regret later.



Today we did this at a time when families were at their most vulnerable. Having to watch your soldier form up for that last formation before being whisked away on crowded buses to an airport to board a plane with an M16 strapped to their back. Their weapon now sleeps beside them where their wives and children should be. How often do you turn your child away and send them back to their beds at night so you can sleep comfortably in yours without them kicking you all night long or waking up with their feet in your nose. And without thinking about that child who just said goodbye to their daddy (or mommy) for what seems a lifetime to them and could very well be a lifetime. How many times does a soldier have to go to war and come back alive before the statistics grab him too?




This is our life. This is what we do. And some of you may say "well you signed up for this is your choice, you knew what you were getting yourself into." For those of you who say that please click the little x at the top right corner now. For those of you who understand that we didn't sign up for this because we love being broke, alone and worried. We love our country. We love our freedom and we need to know that when we leave this Earth we did our part in making sure that someone else lived a better, safer life because of our sacrifice. Our soldiers fight for people who don't care who they are and don't want to hear the horror stories or pay their medical cost for a lifetime of pain. For people more worried about money then ensuring that their great great grandchildren will also be able to be free. Our guys don't want to go to war. They don't want to leave us behind but it's their duty. They feel it's what they should do for all of us left behind. They hate being away, they hate the life they lead while they are gone. They hate seeing their battle buddy wounded. And yet they do all of this to be hated by so many people who just don't get it.



We get it. We really do. We'd love for the war to end tomorrow and our guys to come home. But we know there is a reason. They believe in what they are fighting for. They are protecting us from more attacks on US soil by taking out the bad guy on his own sand (not much soil from the pictures I've seen).

Some of the younger kids have no idea what's happening. They are the lucky ones.


We'll send them letters, care packages filled with all of their favorite non-perishable items. Pictures, video's, phone calls and emails is what we have and we're so grateful for every bit of it! Civilians get contracted out to go to Iraq and Afghanistan and make at least twice as much money without all of the dangers. The military is like the legal way to have cheap labor. Instead of sweatshops they hang out in the desert dodging bullets. They do it anyway. It's okay because they have a support system. They have families at home who love them and miss them.



Deployments make us stronger. We learn how to be single parents. And while many civilians are too it's different. You see we have husbands, we just can see them or touch them. We still have to take care of them from afar. We send them the things they need, listen when they need to vent, take the brunt of their frustration backed by professions of undying love for us and their children. We have to try day after day to explain to little ones that Daddy is helping the good guys (not fighting the bad guys unless you want to battle with nightmares). We live far from family and can't call for a babysitter whenever we want because the people we'd want to see are in our boat. We can't afford to travel to see our parents and have help from family very often and when we do we have to plan it around school and R&R and God knows what.



Ok I'm done complaining. I love my life. I love my soldier. I hate that he's been gone for almost two months and will come home only to have to leave for a gazillion more but I love my freedom. My kids love their Daddy and miss him but it's all worth it in the end because it has to be. This is what we do.


I took this picture of my soldier and little guys a few weeks ago before he left for Maryland because I knew that like my close friends in the pictures above that my turn is next in a few short weeks.

Watching Him Walk Away


And here I go for all my girls.........HOOAH!

It's 2:30 in the morning but tomorrow brings another busy day and I just have to get these pictures I took edited. I'm not posting this blog till tomorrow though so I'll come back and add some pictures for you!

It's 2am on Sunday and I got the pictures added and now I can click publish. Girls thanks for letting me into your lives to invade your space and take pictures of the worst moments we can imagine but need to hold onto so badly. I love you guys and I know you'll be clicking away when I'm red faced and miserable. Thanks for being you!