1 year

Today marks 1 year since this deployment began. One year ago today, I watched my husband get up in the very wee hours of the morning and put on his ACU's and combat boots. I watched him place his remaining unpacked gear in his duffel bag and load it in the back of the car. I remember waking the kids up and placing them in their car seats. I can still remember their sleepy little eyes and the look of complete confusion even though we had been trying our best to prepare them for that moment (but honestly how do you prepare a 3 yr old and 14 month old for something like this?) I don't remember much about the drive to the airport except that there was a lot of silence and quite a few tears. I remember telling myself over and over "you have to be strong" and "don't cry" I had to continue telling myself that because there were 2 sets of eyes on me that I had to remain strong for. I remember how hard the airport was, mostly because of the publicness of it. I felt as if everyone was watching us...I mean it is quite obvious what is going on when a large group of uniformed soldiers are standing around with duffel bags and families who look like they could fall apart at any moment. I remember that final hug...I remember that I did not want to let go, but I had to. It was time to send my man off. I remember watching Jason go through the security check. I remember squatting down next to Jackson with my arms around him as he yelled as loud as he could "Bye daddy, I love you" It was so hard to hear Jackson say that, I can only imagine how hard that must have been for his daddy to hear. I remember watching Jason walk down that long hallway until we could no longer see him. I remember standing at the window as we waited for the plane to take off. Then it did. The plane was gone. I can still remember the very raw emotions of the first few days and weeks. Amazing how after a year, it still seems so fresh to me. One day I plan to blog about that, but not today.
Over this past year a lot has happened. There has been a lot of tears, a lot of praying, some laughter, we have played, I have worked, I have chased kids, put together countless numbers of care packages, written many a letter, and spent endless hours waiting by the phone and computer for that moment when my man would call. I have placed yellow ribbons in the yard and on the car. I have handled countless obstacles (from cars to computers) Sat with sick babies and babies who were worried and could not sleep. I have had to be strong when there were days I did not want to get out of bed, BUT I did. I did it only by the grace of God, because there were days when I did not have it in me.
We are finally in the home stretch of our "storm" I can not believe I can finally type that. There have been days when all seems as a blur and I did not know how we were going to get to this point. BUT I do know, I know that my strength comes from Christ. The same God who said He would never leave me nor forsake me has been with us every step of the way during this deployment.
So...yes, the home stretch :) Being in the home stretch brings a whole new set of emotions and lots of questions (you know questions like "when is Jason coming home") So I will try my best (with the limited information I have) to answer...
Do I have a date yet? The answer is NO. We have lots of projected dates, but nothing certain at this point in time. I do not expect to have that information until about a week before the arrival. So I sit in limbo and try to wait patiently for that phone call with the date. Then I step it in to high gear and make travel plans to go get my man!
Well I guess I have rambled long enough...Thank you my faithful bloggy friends for the prayers and the sweet comments you always leave me. It is such an encouragement to me to read your comments :) Enjoy the pictures of the kids. To mark the occasion I had some tees made for them...they say "My daddy defends the USA, what does your daddy do?" I could not resist them :)

love to all,

Jessica