This will make Tim's seventh deployment. Cole and I have endured all of them together. This is Nora's first, it is hard to see her wonder where her Daddy is and learn that the only place she can find him is on the phone or computer slide show.
We are into our second week of Tim's 7mth deployment. He has not yet reached his destination, he is still in training. These next few days he gets to sleep in a hotel instead of bunking in a shack with 8 other guys.
So far we are all alive but have been better health wise. It started with fevers and viruses the day after Tim had left and coughs and runny noses continue to linger. My car battery has died, and the computer monitor went out, so far these are the only disasters. I have several deployment theories. 1. It takes 2 weeks to get into a new groove. 2. Things will break when they leave. I don't know why, I just know it happens.
The good things are that we do have more time to do school, watch the Olympics, and read. The weeks that build up to a deployment are really stressful. We are cramming in all the "lasts". Last dinner with friends for a while, last phone calls, last sit down and explain how the bills go, last trips to the BX to pick up socks, underwear, etc....It can be exhausting but it must be.
Tim lost his camera and something else (I don't know what it is). Pray that he finds these. He was going to take a picture for Nora to have a daddy doll made but can't.
Nora asks everyday about her Daddy. She now has a laminated pic of him and her to tote around. Cole is his normal self who keeps his thoughts between him and him, Sydney has pitched in like she always does and is Nora's second mother.
Mack had the most emotions of all. It hit him the night before Tim left and he stayed close to Tim for the rest of the time. Mack even gave Tim every bit of money out of his piggy bank. Tim assured Mack that he didn't need any money and wanted him to keep it to buy an ice cream one day.
Now that the sickness is subsiding and the silence of Dad not coming through the door no longer seems strange we are trying to keep ourselves busy. I do have my college classes to keep me busy and I am grateful when Tim returns I will be down to 2 maybe 3 classes left in finishing my BS. Nora and Mack have a new sand/water table to play with and the older two are trying to raise tadpole for a science projects. I hope they don't die before they have a chance to grow legs!
