surviving deployments

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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A Letter To A New Military Spouse, Starting Their Military Life Journey

A Letter To A New Military Spouse Just Starting Their Military Life Journey

A Letter To A New Military Spouse, Starting Their Military Life Journey… I know things feel a bit scary right now. Your loving spouse has just joined the Military. You might not even know how to feel right now. You are probably filled with a range of emotions. Both happy and sad ones. You are not sure what is going to happen or what the next few years will be like. You agreed that you would take it one enlistment at a time. Only three years and then if you both want to walk away you can, only, you wonder …

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Don’t Get Sucked Into the Deployment Hole

Don't Get Sucked Into the Deployment Hole

Don’t Get Sucked Into the Deployment Hole I was in several long distance relationships when I was in college. I can remember so clearly how hard they were. I wasn’t married, but I missed my boyfriend very much. So much so that I felt split down the middle. Half of me was with him, and the other half was trying to live that normal college life.   This was in the day before everyone had a cell phone so I would have to wait in my dorm room for him to call. I couldn’t just go out and do something …

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15 Tips For Surviving Your First Deployment

15 Tips For Surviving Your First Deployment

15 Tips For Surviving Your First Deployment I can still remember driving up to where we would drop off my husband. Other wives and children were already there. There were so many people standing around, worried and sad.  Soon it was time to say goodbye. This was it. He was really leaving. After we said our goodbyes, after he kissed me and our 2-year-old goodbye, he went to the gate. There the men waited for what seemed like forever. Then they headed for the bus. I waited with the other wives. And then waited some more. Then we saw the …

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When They Are Gone On a Deployment For Your Baby’s 1st Year

When They Are Gone On a Deployment For Your Baby's 1st Year

When They Are Gone On a Deployment For Your Baby’s 1st Year I never thought much about being a solo parent before my husband joined the military. I always assumed that when we would have kids, he would be there. He would be there for the pregnancy, the first year, the terrible twos and everything else. However, that isn’t what happened. He was deployed when my 2nd son was born and didn’t come home from that deployment until he was almost a year old.   Because of that long deployment, my husband missed the 1st year of my son’s life. …

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22 Fun Ideas For Staying Busy During a Deployment

22 Fun Ideas For Staying Busy During a Deployment

The number one tip you are going to get to survive a deployment is to stay busy. That you need to stay busy during a deployment to make it through. To fill up your calendar. To have something going every day. This is true. The busier you are, the faster time will go and the sooner the deployment will be over. When you don’t have anything to do, time drags. Sometimes it can be difficult to know what to do each day to stay busy during a deployment, especially if you are new to the area and haven’t met a …

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The One Thing Your Marriage Needs To Survive A Deployment

The One Thing Your Marriage Needs To Survive A Deployment

Trust is so important for any couple, military or not. You have to be able to trust the person you are spending your life with. You have to. If you don’t have trust, you are going to have problems. Within a military marriage, this is even more important. You are going to spend a lot of time apart, oceans apart in some cases. You will go days without talking, sometimes weeks. You might have to go a whole year without living in the same house. Trust is the number one thing you need to survive a deployment. Trust Is A …

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Close But Not Yet There

This will be my last post for Blue Star Families. I will be talking about where we are in the deployment cycle and about the ebook, Everyone Serves.   We are at the end of this deployment, I would assume. Still, we are not quite there yet. I am still struggling. Some days more than others. I might have a good week and then bam, something happens and I feel like I just can’t take another day without him. I hate the up and downs of it. I hate worrying that he will get extended. I hate not knowing what …

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