"love all your life"

Today marks my husband's next step in his deployment journey...after a few weeks of training, he's now venturing out of the US for his deployment.  It's crazy how much more it hits you when you begin to realize a) he's going to be traveling non-stop for a few days, b) that travel will be outside the US, c) the texts/calls will stop because he will no longer have service, and d) you're now really beginning the deployment.  I think it both hit us both last night -- and we both realized it when we had to say "goodnight" for the last time on the phone until the next year.  Of course, we will have Skype capability and email and all that jazz, but the small happiness of being able to say goodnight while I'm lying on my pillow snuggled in our bed is no longer available for a year.  And, you guessed it, our emotions flooded our hearts, eyes, and throats, and we both had to get off the phone with struggling "I love you"'s so we could stay strong for each other.


Today, we had to say goodbye again in another way.  As he left the US headed to his next destination, I caught him up on the puppy's spay appointment (also, today - I know, I know - bad planning) in a minute as he was about to depart.  We again had those same darn emotions flood our hearts, eyes, and throats, and we again got off the phone with struggling "I love you"'s.  In a way, I'm relieved, because the majority of these adjustments/goodbyes/transitions are over.  We can now adapt to our new life (which we'll have for the next year), and learn to cope, continue communicating, and continue to grow our love/relationship across the big ocean :)


After a long week at work, and prepping for his deployment and taking her of Puddles, I am thankful for the amazing people that surround me and care about us all.  Looking forward to a girls' night with my sister tonight and a long weekend with my sweet baby girl.


Thank you for your prayers, thoughts, and following my blog :)

With love,

H