Pre-deployment

   Now if you are a military spouse, then you already know what those two little words mean. If you aren't then you can't fully grasp how those two little words affect a military family's life. Right now we are in the pre-deployment phase, and again for those of you that don't know, it sucks.
   Pre-depoyment means many things; one, that your soldier is about to be gone for a long period of time to a foreign country where there is more danger than most can imagine. Two, that your soldier's leadership are cramming all the paperwork and training that they should have been doing for the last month or two into the last two weeks before deployment so they are at work until some God-awful hour of the night when they should be at home soaking up the last precious days with their families. Three, spending the money that you don't really have on all the last minute things that your solider "needs" (again, according to leadership) like a 4" patch sewn on his ruck that costs $60!! Yeesh! And four, the stress and anxiety of the deployment possibly taking a toll on your relationship.
  Now for any family members reading this the first thing that you have to understand for deployment is OPSEC or operational security. This means that no dates or places related to deployment are posted on anything, ESPECIALLY on Facebook. Any information can put my soldier in danger along with others, and if you do that, I will have no problem kicking your ass. So what I CAN tell you is that Brian will be leaving soon, and he will be gone for 6-9 months to Afghanistan. If you would like to know more, send me a message and I can explain more.
 Right now, I feel that the pre-deployment phase isn't real, which I know is stupid to say because obviously it is. I can say that knowing that my husband is leaving in a short amount of time for about 6-9 months is real because I can see it in the look on his face every time he looks at Briley. I can see him staring at her and already calculating how much he is going to miss every month that he is away. And that part breaks my heart. Don't get me wrong, I am going to miss my husband more than words can say. It'll be like missing a body part. But knowing that my daughter will be missing her daddy and he will be missing her tears me up. :( I will be fine, I will adjust, I'll act like everything is okay, because I have my daughter to set an example for and to keep me strong. And we will just be counting down the days until Daddy comes home.