Tonight I sleep alone so that you can sleep safely

I see this quote every now and then, and today, it feels more true than others. The news is a-flutter with 10.5 month deployments and unrest in all the places where my love is headed. But tonight, he’ll be sleeping in a bed in Hawai’i and (hopefully) getting some well-deserved rest. And I miss him terribly.

No one can tell you how hard this is

Sure, folks will tell you that it’s hard, miserable, tough, draining, isolating, fearful, and all those other “bad feelings”. But they don’t tell you what really hurts. Because they can’t. You have to experience it to understand.

The Sky is Falling!

It’s Day Two of Deployment. I feel like Chicken Little. Little things keep raining down, and it feels like the sky is falling.

Mr. T and the Airplane, crafted by Gabby to keep Mami company when she gets sad.

Gabrielle’s coping mechanisms surprise me. I thought she would act out and isolate. Instead, she has become a clingy, over-cheerful, hyper-empathic little bundle of domesticity. She wants to cook and clean. She won’t let me leave her at daycare without oodles of kisses and hugs, followed by bawling tears and pleas for me to come back for “one more kiss”. As a cuddler myself, you’d think I would be loving this. I’m not.