Dear Deployment: I'm not ready yet

This is my first entry into this new blog. I decided to write this because my husband Justin is being deployed. We just attended his deployment ceremony last week and won't see him again before he deploys. He is currently still in the United States, finishing some pre-deployment training, but then he will be deployed to Africa for a year. We've known for a month and a half or more, but I'm still not ready. Can you ever be ready for a spouse to be deployed? I'll have to get back to you on that one.

This is his first deployment since he's joined the National Guard. We've been through times apart, for training etc., but never anything like this. In fact, in our entire marriage, we've never been apart for this long. I'm just not ready. It's here and it's time, whether I'm ready or not. I'm still in shock I think. A year is a long time and it just seems hard to wrap my mind around being separated for that long. It feels like I'm losing my best friend.

Thank goodness for technology, it will be a great help knowing that we can at least keep in contact while he's there. We can email, chat online, Skype (talk face-to-face on the computer), talk by phone (expensive) and exchange snail mail. I love writing him letters, so we'll see how that goes. I've heard mail takes about a week, week and a half to get there. I'm also planning to send him some care packages while he's over there as well. I know that everyone looks forward to things from home.

He will get a two week leave sometime during his deployment, where he will get the chance to come home and be with us. I am already looking forward to that. It's so hard going from seeing someone every single day, to not seeing them at all. The kids and I will sure miss him while he's gone.

What keeps me going is I know that this isn't the end of the world. I know lots of families going through the same situation and some who have already been through deployments. I have a great group of family members and friends to lean on and I know that they will be there to help us through it.

Above all else, I know our love for each other can get us through.

Ready or not, deployment, here we come.

Have any of you out there been through this? If you have and would like to share your thoughts and tips, please feel free to email me. Feel free to contact me at katiedeardeployment@yahoo.com.