Wednesday, April 3, 2013

"It is just 14 months"......Right?

We have made it to our new home, which is my old home......well my childhood home. That is right! Myself, my three children, and two 100 pound dogs have moved in with my parents. My parents are great, and have made the transition smooth, but it is more than an adjustment.

My husband is now in Korea, and although everyone seems calm, I am pretty nervous about it. We have 14 months until he is home and it cannot come soon enough. The kiddos have started their new schools, which has been hard on the middle one. It will all come though, in time.

With all of the changes comes the military emotions, and I know anyone who has a spouse away knows what I am talking about. There are the strange moments when you are walking through the grocery store and you see a red sign and think how good that would look in your house... then you start crying because your house is one short and everyone around looks at you like you are a crazy mess. That was just an example, trust me the tears come from out of the blue and can usually ruin the whole day.

There are good points to all of this also, I get to tell others how amazing my husband is. He is taking 14 months of his life and living it in a room in a strange country without his children and he does not complain at all. I get to have days that I cry, and I having been through this before I know that it is okay. My children get to learn that life is hard, and we need to be grateful for every second that we have. Not to mention, my husband looks pretty darn good in ACUs.

I have been blessed to have friends from our previous post that have pulled me through my tough days so far. It is hard not having anyone that truly understands. It is frustrating to hear "It is only 14 months, after that you will be together!", or "We will help you keep your mind off of it." from those who have not been through it. It is not JUST 14 months, that is over a year of our lives, there are birthdays, holidays, programs, and hugs that will be missed. And there is no way to keep your mind off of it, we are always a man short. I am thankful for the support I have here, military or not, but there are things that they will never understand.

I am in a town that I grew up as one person and have turned into someone else. It is hard to see people who do not know that. We will make it through and will do it with pride. We will have our bad days, but followed close by the amazing ones. We will miss our soldier and cry for him at night. We will stick together, because that is what we do, and no matter how far away he is he will always be our rock. Besides, "it is just 14 months", right?