Are you ready for this?
Brace yourself because it’s not pretty.
Isaac wants me to wait to watch the rest of this season of Lost until it comes out on dvd.
Just because he missed the first part of the season while he was off in some foreign land defending his country for six months or something.
I’m thinking anyone would consider that grounds for divorce.
Three months.
We are half-way through deployment today, and getting ready to go to the big Over-The-Hump party.
I can’t believe it’s been three months.
A lifetime and a blink of the eye at the same time.
Chloe has learned to read.
Audrey has learned to sit up, crawl, wave and says several words. She doesn’t look anything like the baby you left.
Luke puts his own shoes on, buckles himself into his carseat and says, “No! I not a baby!” when I call him that.
Walls are painted and pictures are hung in the first house we’ve owned.
How in the world have we done it? How have we managed without you for three months?
Three more.
A lifetime.
Hopefully a blink of the eye.
Navy life as a 23-year-old with no children: Flying off to Mazatlan for the weekend because the ship is docking for a few days. Greeting your husband at the dock wearing beautiful, flowing skirt, him in his crisp, white uniform, reminiscent of Top Gun.
Navy life as an almost-30-year-old with three kids: Getting all the kids into the car at night in the rain by yourself to go to the store to buy a plunger because you either don’t have one or you still haven’t unpacked it after four months. Getting home and realizing that you have no idea how to plunge a toilet.
I’m livin’ the dream, people.
Livin’ the dream.
But I thought I might get some bad google searches…
So it’s been a few days since I’ve burst into tears.
And while I’m definitely sad, especially in the evening when there is no one to hang out with, I feel more like myself again.
And I don’t feel the need to beg my husband to please, please get out of the Navy and never ever leave me again.
Because I seriously was on the verge of doing just that a few days ago.
The truth is, there are a lot of benefits to his being in the Navy. The insurance is great, we get to travel and meet new friends all over the world, some day the retirement will be pretty good, I have a common bond with a lot of people that I wouldn’t normally have a lot in common with…
But I think one of the most surprising things, to me, about having my husband in the Navy, is the depth of respect it has given me for him. I mean, of course I respected him enough to marry him. And I knew before we started dating that he would be in the Navy. He was ROTC in college when we met, and when we started dating it was with the understanding that I would need to be willing to marry someone in the military. And if I wasn’t, then there was no reason for us to date.
But before you are married you can’t possibly understand the full extent of the bond you develop, or what it means to be one.
Or that when your husband is gone, part of you is very much gone with him.
But I love him so much more, and respect him so much more, for the fact that he did not just serve his time to pay the military back for his education and then get out. He truly wants to serve. He volunteered to go to Afghanistan two years ago when the call came out. We didn’t know at the time that they’d only give him 9 days notice that he’d be going, but I don’t think that would have made a difference. He wanted to help in the effort to build hospitals and buildings, and roads that would provide access to previously inaccessible people.
And the thing that resonates most deeply with me, is that I know he would give his life if necessary. Not just by being in a dangerous place, but that if it was called for, he would be the one to give his life in order to save his men or others in danger.
And while I really hope and pray that that never happens, I am proud to be his wife.
John 15:13: Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
