not to exceed 365 days, or until mission completed.

This whole deployment thing has really tested my patience, my strength, and my emotions, but it has never once tested my love, or my feelings for my husband, neither will it do so, or my faithfulness. I hear a lot of stories about women that are bitter and spiteful towards their husbands because they feel like the left them. These soldiers leave because their orders say to, not because they are climbing over one another trying to race to the front of the line to be deployed. Some guys live for the front line, but I am willing to bet that 9 times out of 10 these guys only turn that on when they are gone. For the most part, they want to be home with their families, watching their kids grow, keeping their wives up at night or finding themselves late for P.T. courtesy of you. We will never know what its like to be in Afghanistan, and they will never know what its like to be at home with 1,2,3, or more kids alone, trying to make the day work, trying to keep it together when we feel like falling apart, trying to be "Army Strong" for our soldiers. But we couldn't know the feeling of seeing a humvee come back with damage from barely missing an IED, or having to put someones boots with their weapon and id tags, and be sad that that person is gone but glad that its not us. We have to be weary of one another's feelings. I hate the saying "don't sweat the small stuff", because really we should be. Have you ever seen a snowball? It starts our small, but if you roll more stuff up into it it gets so big that pretty soon you can't control it anymore. SO sweat the small stuff, if you need something from him tell him, don't NAG him, because chances are he is so caught up in staying safe that he isn't even noticing what you're upset about. Plus, no one can read a mind, especially over facebook or skype, so tell him. And if he needs something from you, do it. I mean really, is he asking too much if he asks you to stay in most nights because he needs to know your safe? My husband is out there putting his own LIFE on the line for me, that is a sacrifice that hardly anyone is willing to make. Its a damn shame if I'm not willing to do the things he asks me to do so that he is comfortable over there and able to keep his mind on what needs to be done to come home safe to me and our babies. Whats a year without barhopping every weekend, and sleeping with the kids, in return for a long happy life together. Brandon said it best before he left. If we can take advantage of all that they offer families during deployment, be able to communicate better than any other couple, and then spend the next 100 years not having to be apart again, whats one year? Its long, its tough, but its not going to take the love I have for my husband down even a little bit, in fact, I think I'll love him more, if its even possible. In the word's of my main man Usher, " i feel like it's our first time everytime we get together, baby loving you feels better than everything, anything. Put on my heart you don't need a ring, and i promise our time away won't change my love."