It's getting closer

Well we are just about out of time. I am dropping Adam off at 9am Monday morning to leave for Afghanistan. I'm not sure where the past few months have gone. It seemed like earlier in 2008 that his deployment date would never get here and now all of a sudden I am staring it in the face. Part of me is glad it is finally here. Not because I want him to go but because I hate all of the waiting and preparing. The waiting/preparation part of deployments just drags the torture out. With this being our 3rd deployment it is safe to say that I have "been there and done that" with just about everything involved. Our first deployment we learned about just 1 week after finding out I was pregnant with Andrew and then Adam left 2 weeks later. That was our shortest deployment, only because Adam joined his unit late. He managed to make it home about 3 weeks before I delivered Andrew. We were very lucky after that. Adam was home for almost 2 years before deployment #2 came along. This deployment would end up being harder than anyone ever imagined. His unit left in Feb 06 for Afghanistan with the plans of being there for 12 months. Andrew and I moved to AR during that time to be closer to family and so I could have help with my then highly active 2yr old. In Jan 07, about 2 weeks before Adam was scheduled for a flight home, the phone call came. Due to the troop surge in Iraq our soldiers were being extended another 3 to 4 months. Talk about a shocker!! Here we were planning what to do next and in true Army fashion our plans were changed. But we made it through that 15 months and now 19 months later we are about to start another 12 months apart. Andrew and I will survive this deployment just like the others. It will be tough at times but I know we will be fine. So here's to making the most of our last 4 days together for a year.