It's hard enough for an adult to go through a deployment with their spouse/child/ family member etc. but could you imagine a child going through it? Could you imagine your child going through it? Sadly there are so many children that have to deal with this every day. Audrianna and Ella will be going through deployment #3 and Paisley #2! The sad part about that, Paisley isn't even 2 yet, she's not even a year and a half yet and she will be going through a second deployment. I swear my children are stronger then I am. It seems so unfair to me that any child should have to go through this but it's reality. On top of deployments, which a lot of civilian's don't know is that before they even deploy, they are off training 2-3 times before. Each time lasting at least a month, so in reality a deployment really starts months before they actually leave.
What brought this topic up was, I was going through ALL of my photos back from 2004 until present. From 2007 until recently, Jimmy's presence in our photo albums is ghostly. He's there one album and hundreds later, he's there again. Looking at the photo's in between made me really upset. All the things he's missed, all the mile stones, everything. But my children still had smiles on their faces, they were happy during those times regardless if their father was there or not. It's sad. I give my children so much credit. Yes, they do have their moments where they miss their daddy and they cry, but they understand why their daddy has to be away for months on end, why he does what he does. My almost 5 year old and 3 year old can tell you about the war and what their daddy does. People think that's horrible that they know what they know, but we want our children to understand everything. And they do. They know their Daddy fights for the country they live in, that he carries a gun and shoots it, that he is going to get the bad guys who want to hurt us, that not all of their friends daddies do what their daddy does and not to be upset that their friends have their daddies home and they don't. Jimmy is their Super Hero!
So remember, always pray and think about our service men and women but never forget to do the same for the families and children left behind who are fighting their own battles at home!!
Here are photo's from my children on their father's deployment days
(I will update with the new ones as soon as we come to that day)
March 8th 2008
Their first deployment.
Audrianna-22 months old
Ella-4 months old
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| Hanging out with Daddy before he left. |
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| Daddy and Ella. |
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| Daddy and Audrianna. |
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| Saying "See you Soon" to Daddy. |
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| Saying see you soon to a sleeping Ella in her car seat...8 Months later, she ran to her Daddy at homecoming! |
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| & there he went..(on the worst deployment, got extended and 5 straight months fighting etc...) |
January 19th 2010
Audrianna- 4 months shy of 4 years old
Ella-26 months old
Paisley-2 months old
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| Spending time with Daddy |
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| Getting last minute loving in with Paisley |
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| Saying "See you soon" to daddy again and being so strong! |
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| Ella was so upset.... |
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| The 5 of us, one last time before he left |
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| Heartbreaking-waving to daddy |
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| & there he went again! |
I agree, its so sad to see kids go through this stuff, partly because some are too young to understand and the older ones that understand have to be strong for something they shouldn't have to be.
ReplyDeleteA 5 year old should run and play like a 5 year old...not have to worry about daddy, its sad to see the burden they carry.
God Bless you & your girls.
I may be a fellow wife and mother to a Marine but I give you mad props. I have only had to do 1 deployment pregnant 3 years ago. Soon he will be back to being deployable and I am severely dreading it. But its wives like you who keep our guys morales up so they can fight the fight. Hopefully we will hang out this summer and help pass the time of another deployment.
ReplyDeleteShiang-ling