what about the kids?

so it's not just about you, you've got this little one who is your world too. but how are you going to keep yourself together and make sure your little one(s) some survives this tough experience too?

the first time my hubby deployed it was just the two us, no kids. however, i was teaching on post in the 4&5 year old program and felt like a second mother to many of them. i can still see the day they broke my heart as if it were this morning. jakobi came in glum and definitely not himself. carlos walked over to him, put his arm around his shoulder and said, 'it's okay, i miss my dad too.' how does something like that not break your heart? as a teacher i made sure our weekly newsletters were available online for our soldier parents down range so that they could keep up with their preschooler. we also made weekly care packages of artwork and student work for our students who had soldiers down range. and our school had a 'wall of heroes' where students could hang home-made posters of their soldier. it wasn't much, but it helped.

the second time hubby deployed our son was just five weeks old. i knew what i was going to do to make it through the deployment, but what was i going to do to make that our son knew who his father was when he came home 15 months later? my hubby taped himself reading bedtime stories and made our son a build-a-bear with a special message for him. i made hung pictures of the two of them and of hubby in his uniform all over the house. we used the webcam as much as possible. and by the time my hubby came home for r&r, our son was seven months old but knew who the tall man in the uniform was; he was the man in the computer, the voice on the phone, the guy who read to him each night. and when our deployment was over and we picked up our hero, we went home, had dinner and by bath time it was as if my hubby had been home the last 15 months.

because i was a first-time mom and we were stationed at a remote-like base with no family nearby and large population of the post deployed, i moved home. this was a decision my hubby and i made. for us, since our son was only five weeks old, the move did not interfere with school or with friendships already made.
aaron's wifey
army
2 deployments

great resources for kids:
military one source has a great list of books, dvds and online resources for you and your kids:
http://tinyurl.com/militaryonesource