Time is flying, and before we know it we’ll be dropping off my husband and saying our “see you laters”… It’s hard to believe we won’t be able to hug or kiss him for months on end. Or that he won’t be able to hug or kiss us. Breaks my heart. This will be our first deployment with children, and I’m going to be honest and just say it: I am so scared.

I’m not sure if having 2 year olds is a curse or a blessing in this case. They’re too young to really understand, but old enough to know he’s gone… ya know? Thankfully, I have worked with children around their age at a couple of CDCs (Child development centers) at our previous bases, so I have some ideas of things to help us all cope and get through it.  *IF YOU HAVE ANY TIPS PLEASE COMMENT BELOW :)* I KNOW they will be okay. I know we will come out on top, it’s just the moments leading up to it that cause serious anxiety. haha!

Pre-deployment is almost worse than the actual deployment stress wise for me. You know it’s coming.  You sometimes don’t have an exact date until a week prior, you’re anticipating it, trying to plan for it… A MILLION different emotions come to surface. You want to tell your spouse how much you love them and squeeze em tight… then you want to push them away, because you will be doing it on your own VERY soon and it’s just NATURAL to start getting your mind in gear. THEN you feel bad for acting crazy. Start questioning your own sanity… make unhealthy food choices (or is that just me? haha) to help  ease the stress… haha! Oh y’all… it’s not fun. HAH! THANKFULLY I have an AMAZING husband who is SO supportive and can handle my crazy like NO OTHA! 😉

BUT aside from all the sad stuff,  there is always a bright side (in my world anyway haha)! I know that at the end of this our whole family will have learned something from it, and we will be SO much stronger! <3

THE SUPER bright side to this one is: We are also VERY blessed to be home for this deployment, instead of on the other side of the world. We will have the love and helping hands of family, and for that I couldn’t be more thankful!!

We’ve been spending the last week having TONS of family time. We’ve laid in bed and watched cartoons, made a trip to Great Wolf Lodge (Y’all.. that place is amazing lol), we visited the zoo, played at the park, went for milkshakes… fun, quality, family time.

 

Here are some photos from our trip to one of our favorite local beaches <3