Army Wife Diary
Most of these posts were originally written four years ago as a Deployment Diary. I wanted to share them in case they are helpful or inspiring to someone.
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The Deployment Balancing Act – Day of the Deployed
The Day of the Deployed is always a bittersweet remembrance for me because my husband has deployed several times. While I am so grateful he isn’t deployed today, I know that thousands of spouses still wait, life on perpetual pause, hoping their spouses return safely. I never know how to summarize the experience of deployment for those outside this military community because it’s such a complex experience. We miss them as husbands, and we miss them as friends. We miss help with baths, bedtimes, homework, housework. While we struggle with anxiety and fear, we simultaneously live for every phone call or email and struggle to live at all. It’s this…
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Day of the Deployed – Saying Goodbye
Today is Oct. 26 – the 11th annual Day of the Deployed, a day to remember the sacrifices of all the service members deployed around the world. Perhaps, also a day to remember the families left behind as well. (this site uses Affiliate links-purchases support our ministry through a small referral fee that never affects your cost.) I don’t know what it is like to be deployed. I only know what it is like to say goodbye and be left behind: the heaviness in my chest, the knot in my stomach, the steely resolve, and the tears hiding behind every smile. Below is my post from the day my husband…
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The Devastating Agony of the Night Before Deployment
The nights before deployment were some of the most difficult of my married life. Every moment is full of the devastating agony of letting go. Each second is rich with longing and fear. Saying goodbye is a balancing act between saying enough and never being able to say enough. It’s the agony between he is still here and he is leaving that hangs like a sword over your head every minute. It’s trusting that God will bring him home. It’s fearing your children won’t remember their daddy if the worst happens. It’s taking a deep breath and holding it for a year. August 22, 2010, the night before his fourth…
