As most of you know by now Marty is gearing up for a deployment. In about 3 months he will be deploying to Afghanistan for 12 months. So it’s time for me to start gearing up for a year all on my own and being a single mom to 2 kids. His last deployment, my first deployment, I had no prep time. He was only given about 3 weeks notice about 3 weeks after I had moved in. I didn’t know anyone in Killeen. I had no idea what to expect, I had no support system. I was totally lost and felt all alone. This time we have the gift of time. The time to prepare ourselves for the road that lies ahead of us. This time is different, he is my husband, the single most important person in my life. This time we have two kids that I have to help understand why their Daddy is gone. This time it’s going to be so much harder.
There are few things that I am doing to help prepare myself. This time I will be an active member of our FRG (Family Readiness Group). I will be able to meet and talk to other wives whose husbands are also deployed in the same unit. We will have regularly planned activities that will be informational, fun and will help us to prepare for and deal with everything that is going to happen during the entire duration of the deployment process. We will do things for the soldiers. We will know that we are not alone and I will have someone to turn to if I need help with anything. We will be registering the kids with the Child Development Center on post so that I can take advantage of their hourly care program. Riley will be going to daycare on a part time basis, probably for a day or two each week. Starting with the next school year Riley will be attending Pre-K. Yes, Riley is going to start school. I am so excited that I was able to find a Pre-K program for 3 year olds with one of the local school districts. It will be all day, all week. This is going to be so great for Riley and if it was up to her she would start today. Of course this is also providing that she will finish this potty training business between now and them. When Riley starts going to school Gavin will probably start going to daycare at least once as week for a few hours. He will be 16 months old by then so I will feel more comfortable with leaving him, I hope. I am also arranging so that I have a babysitter for both of the kids, overnight, at least once a month so that I can get out and get in some me time. And last the blog, this blog is really going to become my outlet. Unless you have lived through a deployment you have no basis to even come close to understanding how hard it is. So get ready because I am not going to hold anything back. It may not always be pretty but it will always be honest. I have a few more ideas of things that I will talk about more later as all of the details fall into place.
If anyone out there has any advise or any suggestions I am open to them. Just leave a comment or shoot me an email. laura@justlauralu.com If anyone would like to volunteer to mow the lawn for me for the next year that would be great too.
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Have you gotten them daddy dolls? Kay and Harp loved them and took them everywhere.