When the Heart Aches

I only usually post about my twins, but tonight I have to vent a little.  A good friend of mine called me today almost in tears freaking out.  Her boyfriend is deploying next month for 8 months and she can't stop crying.  She's former Air Force and has been deployed herself but didn't have a boyfriend at the time.  Now she's on the other side, the one that gets left behind.  She has nobody else who she can talk to about this besides me.  I'm the only one she knows that can relate to this.  So what advice can I truly give her?  Honestly, nothing I can say will make it better because the truth is deployments SUCK!  That's exactly what I said.  All I can do as a friend is listen to her and give her my own advice of what I experienced.  Just hearing her over the phone and listening to all her worries brought back so many memories.  It's crazy that it has been 7 years since I went through the deployment with Brad, yet I can remember things so vividly.  To this day, certain songs will make me tear up and little things will trigger my memory back to that time.  When Brad deployed we were newly weds and I was still very young; only 19.  It was hard enough being the only one in my group of friends to be married let alone having my husband deployed to Iraq.  I'm so very grateful to the online friends that I made that were going through the same thing and my amazing friend, Tanya, whose husband, then boyfriend, was deployed with Brad as well. 
I'm happy that I can try to help a friend, even if all I do is listen to her.  I told her that if they can survive this, they will come out so much stronger when it is all over.  Saying goodbye has been one of the hardest things I ever had to do. But like I told her, homecoming day is so amazing.  Being able to hug and kiss your man after so long is such an amazing high...one of the best feelings in the world.  Not a lot of people get to experience that.  So with that said, my heart aches for her because I know exactly how she's feeling and exactly what's going through her head.  I pray that they make it through this and that he comes home safe.

To all my amazing friends that still have to deal with deployments, I love you!  I will forever be grateful to your man and you for making the sacrifice ♥


The day before I said goodbye to Brad I gave him a scrapbook that I made for him.  In return, he made two videos for me.  I tried posting the link but is not working.   

Brad in Iraq 2006 during a convoy



First time seeing each other after 8 months

Brad and Josh