I am on my MOPS steering team this year as a table leader. This is my first year as a volunteer for MOPS and I am really looking forward to it. If you are in the Ft. Campbell area and are pregnant or have any kids 5 and under, you should come to MOPS on post 🙂 We meet every other Wednesday at the new chapel.
We are preparing for a lot more moms this year because sadly, this is going to be a big deployment year for our post. Not everyone will leave at once and most likely the last group will leave around the time the first groups get home but it is still something that is felt post wide.
I have friends who are getting ready to say goodbye to their husbands, they are working on getting all those last-minute details prepared. My husband has a possible month range but who really knows if and when he will go. Bags are being packed, wills are being taken care of an Army wives around here are making their deployment to-do lists. For some this will be there very first deployment, for others this will be # 3 or 4 or even more. It will be #4 for us when my husband leaves.
It is hard is to know that another deployment is coming and see these kind of things in the news:
7 US troops among 11 killed in helicopter crash in Afghanistan
Monthly Army suicides reach all-time high in July with 38 suspected
How can we stay calm for yet another deployment? So many of our soldiers have been through so much. Breaks don’t feel long enough.
My fellow blogger Household Diva 6 wrote an amazing post yesterday about it called War is a horrible thing! I really recommend that you read it.
This Army life…it is just really hard sometimes. It is hard to watch husbands go off to war, even if they are not your own. It is hard knowing it will be your turn soon. It is hard not knowing when he might be deployed. It is hard waiting for him to return. It is hard knowing he could be hurt or worse. It is just hard. So unbelievably hard.
If you are reading this and about to start a deployment, just know you are not alone. A lot of us have been through it and know what it is like. Do not be afraid to ask for help (which I really really struggle with) and know that people are praying for you and that deployments don’t last forever.
If you are reading this and do not have a family member in the Military, please remember to pray for our troops and their families. We need it. We really really need it.
I am gonna have to come to MOPS sometime soon! What time is it? And do the kiddos have to be CYS-registerd? (Please say no…) 😉
I wish all these deployments would end! I know that if we get the post we want after Kyle is done with school that he will 100% be deploying again.
I know what you mean…we recently got word of deployment #4. It doesn’t get any easier.
You ladies have my heart felt support. I am not sure how you do it with young children. My own dear Soldier was deployed for 2 straight years. I thought I would never make it. He came home, retired (ha ha,) after 30 years Active and Reserve, and the State Department had recruited him within 3 months, and he is back in Iraq. If I did not know what a unique skill set he has, and how much his efforts mean to the country, I could not bear it. However, deep in my heart I do know. I have started writing poetry during this season of sacrifice, and it is poetry for all of us who understand just who all serves, and what it entails to preserve the liberty of all Americans… As each of you know… the cost is immeasurable… I share this poem to comfort you by making you aware once again that you have many sisters in service…
If
If there stood before me 1000 men,
Each of whose lives I had observed again and again.
If I had watched them closely at command,
Of Soldiers, equipment, and resources try to meet war’s great demands.
If I knew their lives, credentials, and previous work,
How they handled things, and I were privy to each little quirk.
If the fate of personal liberty, the freedom of us all,
Hung in the balance, and without the right leadership would forever fall.
If there would be before us, only one chance,
To meet in battle some terrible foe, and the art of war to dance.
If by the wisdom and expertise of only one man,
The defenses of our country would fail or stand.
If you, my love, stood among those men in their rows,
The one whom no other I have ever loved so.
If somehow it were my duty the right decision to deliver,
My mind could easily make the choice, but my heart would quiver.
If I knew the man I chose would never come home,
Could I give what it cost, the most valuable thing I own?
If in my decision, would the moral courage by which I have watched you live,
Empower me to do the right thing, and the sacrifice to give.
If as I considered all that lay in the balance, to me you would clearly state,
What your own choice would be and how you would face your fate.
If, as I know would happen, I knew who stood above the rest.
Could I, in selfishness, select the one who was second best?
If there stood before me 1000 men,
This I pray before God, that I never will know how it ends
Debra LeCompte, 2011