Preparing...

So I have been researching books for the kids this week. I am very lucky to have a friend who has some experience with preparing families for deployments and was able to find some really nice books. Normally, I love to buy new books for the kids. We are big on reading in this house. But, I started to think about what this will entail. How can you really prepare kids for something like this?

Lovey (our son) has started this new thing where if he feels that something is taking too long, he says, "Mom this has taken 20 minutes." For whatever reason, 20 minutes has become his amount of time that seems like forever. He asks a lot of time related questions now, like how long until his birthday or how long until Christmas. And I can give him an honest answer, but when you are 3 years old, you don't necessarily grasp the concept of how long "time" is. And even more so than Lovey, Peanut (our daughter)is even younger and doesn't necessarily understand either.

We made the decision to not tell the kids until the week before Hubbie leaves. As of now the game plan will be to sit down with them and tell them that Daddy will be going away for a long time, but that he will be back and that he loves them. We want to make sure they know that Daddy is going to be serving his country and being very brave and doing something very good. We are hoping to read the books with them and then see what they have to say. It sounds simple. But I don't even know how we will get through that process. Just thinking about that conversation makes my heart hurt. And I really have no idea what they will say. And they may ask tough questions or say something that might hurt. Or what if they are angry, or sad. What is they cry? How am I suppose to get them through it? Kids speak from the heart and you never know what they will say, so I don't really know how to prepare for this.

I worry about them. I don't want them to be sad, but know that it might happen. I know that if they cry, I will too. As a parent you just don't want your kids to have to feel these types of things. I wish I could protect them from this, but it is the reality of the situation. I am sure that 6 months is going to feel like forever to them. And it breaks my heart.

That's what I have been thinking about all weekend. We had such a nice long weekend together as a family and I am so glad for that. I told Hubbie at the park today that as much as I just try to enjoy the moments we share together as a family, I can't help but be a little sad that we will be apart. So we are just trying to live in the moment and enjoy them.

And since I have been posting all these "sad" things, I decided that I wanted to share something funny that happened. I think that this was the point when I knew it was all going to be ok. We were visiting my family over the holidays and Hubbie and I were having a conversation with my sister about how the people she works for bought her some really nice gifts for the holidays. She is a very hard worker and deserves it, but this chick got hooked up! So we were telling her how lucky she is because when we worked in the hospital, we never got a holiday bonus. And I think one year I got a lunchbox as a gift. So I asked Hubbie if the military gives them any type of holiday bonus and with out missing a beat, he said:

"Yeah. They are giving me an all expense paid trip to Afghanistan."

My sister and I sort of didn't know if we should laugh or what, but we all ended up in hysterics! I mean it was funny! So I think that getting to the point where you can make a joke like that and laugh is a good thing. I think it broke the ice with being around my family and no one knowing what to say or if we should talk about it. So there. I end on a happy note this evening ;) As always, G-d bless our troops, keep them safe until they all come home.