Eight weeks ago I was cleaning our living room in preparation for a home visit from the preschool we have been hoping to get the Captain into when my phone rang. What followed, as well as the moments leading up to that point, will forever be etched in my memory . It was SGT Hubby calling from WLC. Normally this would have not been strange, except for the fact that in the week that he had been away so far, he had only been calling at night to say goodnight to the Monsters and I before bed. This call came midmorning.
SGT Hubby: I just got a phone call...
I immediately started thinking he had finally heard about a fulltime guard position we had been waiting to hear about since December (which we found out later he had not gotten).
SGT Hubby: ...from the Commander.
Me: What's wrong?
He then proceeded to tell me that he was possibly being deployed but it wasn't a for sure thing yet.
Well, here we are eight weeks later, and we are at the start of our second deployment.
It's been a whirlwind romance. In the eight weeks between the original phone call and today, I saw SGT Hubby nineteen days out of fifty-six days. We tried to pack as much as we could in the days we had him, but between him working his civilian job still and the Apprentice still being in school, the time passed far too quickly. I also do not feel as though reality has set in yet.
With our first deployment, we knew over a year in advance that he would be leaving. It loomed over our heads through all the holidays and birthdays we had prior to him leaving. This time around we were able to enjoy those holidays blissfully unaware of the trainwreck what the future held for us. But the lack of time to prepare can be just as bad. It's only the first day in and I am discovering things that we overlooked in our preparations. That is the nature of deployment and more things will surface. And we will overcome them. Because we are strong. We have to be.
