Deployment

The First Night After the Deployment is Over

You have waited for months and months, and the day is finally here. Homecoming… The deployment is over, and you will get your spouse back, after so much time apart. If you have never been through a deployment or homecoming before, you might be asking yourself how that first night will go, after the deployment is over. For months now, you have joked with your friends about how that will be, and how exciting having your spouse back in your arms again will feel. You have some idea of how things will go, but you still might not really be …

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When Deployments Don’t Get Any Easier

When Deployments Don’t Get Any Easier I couldn’t believe he was leaving again. Just two weeks before we had thought that he wasn’t going to go. Now he was and it was time to say goodbye. This time, he was leaving very early in the morning. We were all there, my three boys and I. We took some photos and said goodbye. Knowing that when he returned they would all be a little bigger. They would be doing new things and we would have made a lot of memories together without him. I knew this deployment wasn’t going to be …

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When the Holidays Don’t Feel Like the Holidays

When the Holidays Don’t Feel Like the Holidays The holidays are here, and with this season comes decorating for Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever holiday you celebrate. This season means parties, and gift wrapping and baking yummy holiday treats. This season means being together with family, and being thankful for everything in your life. But what do you do when your spouse is deployed? When they are off in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, or some other part of the world too many miles from where you are? What do you do when you just don’t feel like doing Christmas? When you just …

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Surviving A Military Deployment

Surviving A Military Deployment

Surviving A Military Deployment I am sitting in my living room, in our 3rd-floor stairwell apartment in Schweinfurt, Germany. We just got back from the park, and my two-year-old is finally asleep. I am nursing my baby to sleep and will put him down in a bit. I plan to take a well-needed bubble bath once I do. It’s been a day. It’s been a week. It’s been a rough deployment.   And we still have so much more time to go…   Way too many days…way too long. And while every day is a day closer, the time ahead …

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How to Get Through a Deployment With Toddlers

How to Get Through a Deployment With Toddlers

How to Get Through a Deployment With Toddlers Deployment #2, my husband left, and it was just me, my two-year-old, and my four-year-old. A deployment with two toddlers. If you have ever had a toddler, you know how much work they can be. Toddlers are a handful, even the easy ones. And here I was home with two of them, with my husband too many miles away. I was a SAHM and didn’t have a spouse coming home at the end of the day. I didn’t have a spouse who could watch the kids for 15 minutes so that I …

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At the End of the Day, Sometimes You Just Have to Suck it Up

At the End of the Day, Sometimes You Just Have to Suck it Up Deployments are no joke. I hate deployments, and yet I know they are a part of the military life experience. And while there are so many ways to make it through a deployment, sometimes you just have to suck it up and get through the days apart, even if you don’t want to. The biggest thing is making sure you have what you need to get through the deployment. This is going to look different for everyone. Some people love wine, others, not so much. Some …

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When You Hate Deployments

When You Hate Deployments

When You Hate Deployments Our first deployment came about nine months after my life as a military spouse first began. This was after spending about 4.5 months apart waiting to join my husband in Germany. He left the following August, and that deployment didn’t end until November of the following year. That was such a long time to be away from my husband. Even now, all these years later, I can’t even believe we got through that. I had a baby during that deployment, a toddler, and lived in Germany, far away from family and what we were used to. …

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The End of a Deployment is A Good Time to Try Something New

The End of a Deployment is A Good Time to Try Something New So you are at the 8-month mark, finally! You have weeks to go, you are counting down the days in your head (not online of course, OPSEC and all,) and you are not quite sure you are really at this place. How did you make it this far? One day at a time? Somehow you are at the end of the deployment. And now things are dragging again. Time is moving at a snail’s pace. So close, yet so far. What can you do about that? Why not …

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What To Do When There is a Natural Disaster and Your Spouse is Deployed

What To Do When There is a Natural Disaster and Your Spouse is Deployed

What To Do When There is a Natural Disaster and Your Spouse is Deployed I have been through my share of earthquakes growing up in California. Fortunately, I was never in any danger from any of them. After moving to the south, I have been through my fair share of tornado warnings, and fortunately, none of them have come too close to our house. The biggest issue we have dealt with when it came to weather when my husband was deployed was losing power during a storm, for about 37 hours. While we didn’t have any real damage, and USAA replaced …

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When They Miss Stuff

When They Miss Stuff

When They Miss Stuff Your service member doesn’t have to be deployed to miss stuff. This can happen at any time. Maybe they have a school to go to, maybe they have extra training to attend, maybe they have a 24 hours CQ. As military spouses, we get used to this…sort of. We know they can’t be there for everything, we even know that had they not joined the military, their civilian careers could keep them from missing things too. If we are a national guard or reserves spouse, we already know that from experience. Still… When they miss stuff, …

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