Our Deployment Story

As I sit here and look at my good friend Ali's blog (Check her out over at Souriant Designs ) about redeployment's, I can't help but reflect on the deployment my husband and I went through. March 10th will mark 2 years that Bradley has been home...and even now pictures of redeployment ceremonies immediately bring me to tears. Our deployment admittedly weighed on our marriage, as it does any. We were a newly married couple being forced to spend 1 year apart, who WOULDN'T that affect? There were arguments, tears, and happiness many times through out that year. Bradley left Fort Riley on March 8th, 2010 and I pulled outside of the gate with intentions to drive home to Texas to stay with family. I drove outside the airfield gate, pulled over, and cried for at least an hour before I actually gathered up the courage to continue on my venture to our new home. I spent the next 4 months living with my cousin and her family before I went to stay with my parents.

 Bradley came home that October on his mid-tour leave. We spent that 3 weeks together cherishing every moment we had together. We did a little "mini-vacation" in Fort Worth visiting museums, eating yummy food, going on the train, visiting the stock yards. Bradley and I actually got to go on our sushi date! We squeezed in any holiday events we could by visiting pumpkin patches, carving pumpkins, and celebrating Phillip's 5th birthday a few weeks early. His R&R was so intense for me, I knew that he was leaving again, and this time I was fully aware of what to expect. So while I was so glad to see him, I often was equally as sad knowing what was so quickly going to return. Before Bradley came home for R&R we decided we were going to try for another baby, and with God's amazing grace, we were blessed enough to give Phillip a sibling.

And then the time came for him to leave. While I thought telling him goodbye the first time was hard, the 2nd time was so unbelievably much harder. Phillip really understood what was happening this time and he was equally as sad. We watched Bradley board the plane, then Phillip and I walked hand and hand out of the airport with tears streaming down our face.

Waiting on his plane, for him to leave.

The remainder of the deployment seemed to go faster than the first half. We had Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then I moved back to Kansas in January to get a house ready for Bradley to return. 
Thanks to amazing technology, Bradley was able to "be" there to hear the heartbeat for the very first time. I brought my laptop into the doctor's office and Skype'd with him and the doctor talked to him as if he was there, so it was a really neat experience for everyone. 

March 10th, 2011, Bradley returned home. I remember Bradley text me and told me to swing by the area where they were being "held" until the ceremony and I drove slowly by a fenced area and he waved. It was pretty funny, given that it felt like we were going to get in trouble! Ha! Anyways, so that evening we went to the redeployment ceremony, and a multitude of emotions were felt that day. To be able to run and hold onto the person you love with all your heart and know they are home for good, to watch your son wrap his arms around his daddy and hold onto him so tight, and to feel your husband rub the baby belly you didn't have last time he saw you...all of these emotions don't even have words to describe the amount of happiness we all felt that day. 
So on the days there are his dirty socks on the floor, he's driving me crazy, and I just want to scream....I have to remind myself to stop and remember what we made it through. I will always be forever grateful that he DID come home, and we are so much stronger. He's mine, and he will always be.