Afghanistan

Well, probably anyone who reads this blog already knows this, but since this is also a place for me to keep a record of what our family does, I'd better post on this major event in our lives.

Joe has been in the Utah National Guard for about 7 years now.  We've had him leave for months at a time for basic training, airborne school, special forces training, etc.  He's been gone many a weekend for regular drill.  Sometimes he's been gone for a few weeks for extended training.  And he's gone to the Philippines twice for about 6 weeks each, to help train their army against insurgents in the islands.  So, he's been gone quite a bit over the years.  He's had to juggle all this training on top of a very demanding civilian job, not to mention a family who demands a lot too!  Especially a little 4 year old girl.


During all those years we knew that he might get deployed, but each time a deployment came up, something behind the scenes happened and his unit didn't end up going.  For my part, I sort of thought we were lucky and that maybe he wouldn't have to go!  But this fall he got the call, and after a few false starts, these orders went through.  After Thanksgiving he did about 3 weeks of pre-deployment training with his UT unit, then he came home for Christmas.  Thankfully we had him uninterrupted by Army or Dept. of Justice for about a week and then he went to Washington state for the rest of his pre-deployment training. He was able to come back twice for about 3 days each during his time in WA, because they kept changing the schedule.  That was both wonderful and hard, as the kids wanted to see him as much as they could, but cried every time he left.

 
On his way to Afghanistan his plane had a layover in Baltimore, MD, which is about an hour away from our home.  I felt lucky that I got to go and see him before he left, though it was a bit like pulling off a band-aid slowly.  There he was in his uniform, with all the other soldiers, and I knew I was going to have to let him leave very soon.  And not make a scene.  That's not easy.  The reality of his deployment really hit me at the airport.  I guess I had just kept waiting for the Army to change something again and say that it wasn't going to happen.

So, now he's in the country, after waiting for a few days in Kyrgyzstan.  He says it's extremely dusty.  Someone else that has been there told me it's like chocolate milk powder blowing around all the time (though not as tasty).  He doesn't know what he'll be doing yet or exactly where he's going to be permanently stationed.  And we're not really sure how long he'll be there - maybe until October? You never know with the Army.

Our family is doing as well as we can without him.  We all miss him very much and pray for him constantly.  We are blessed to have loving neighbors and friends all around us, who are always asking to help in some way.  And our family far away is always checking in on us.  The kids are busy with school and basketball, which helps everyone keep their minds off the missing link in our home.  So, don't worry about us, but please  keep Joe in your prayers.