That word alone makes every military wife cringe.
I have been there. My kids have been there.
It stinks. It is hard and it feels like it last forever.
Here are a few quick tips I used during the last deployment to make things a tad easier on the family.
I hope they give you an idea or two.
Daddy Dolls
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The girls got "Daddy Dolls" and the boys got personalized 'Dog Tags' like their Daddy's. Daddy carried the boys' dogs with him in his ACU leg pocket. They were always close to him. The girls still sleep with their Daddy Dolls. They liked them even better after they put skirts on them! |
Flying Questions
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The kids told me questions they wanted to ask their Daddy, about anything... They asked, "How is the food in Iraq/ Afghanistan?" "What was your favorite cereal growing up?" "If you had to be an author what would you write about?" I typed them up. (At this point I secretly saved a copy and sent it to my husband via email.) They cut up their tiny questions and put them inside balloons. |
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Can you see the little questions in there? |
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Off the questions went. They traveled all the way to the warzone. Can you believe it? (OK, so my kids are young and a little silly. But, it made them feel closer to their Daddy, so that's all that matters.) Through a lot of faith, and a little help, the questions found Daddy! He answered them over the course of several letters. He even included a busted balloon piece (...that Mommy had put in his luggage.) |
Daddy's Kisses & Hugs
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Our "Kiss" Jar was really a 'kiss &hug' jar. Each kid got one kiss and one hug a night. I replaced them throughout the deployment. I really did not worry about the numbers because we have a lot of kids. I started lowering them when we had about three weeks left. |
Skype
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We finally got Skype about six months into the deployment. It was AMAZING! This is the first time the kids had seen their Daddy in 184 days. We set up times when each kid could talk with just their Daddy listening after this. It made the distance seem not so far when he knew all about their day and the crazy thing that so-and-so did. That is it for now. I will add more as I think of them and go through my pictures. God Bless the Army! As always, Keep the Faith and Love your Soldier, ~Aggie Amy |
