09/18/2026
Deployment is hard.
And I don’t think people fully understand how hard it is unless they’ve lived it.
It’s not just missing your husband. It’s missing your best friend, your teammate, and the person you’re supposed to be doing life with.
It’s waking up and doing another day without them. It’s handling the kids, the house, the appointments, the birthdays, the hard days, the good days, and all the little things in between by yourself.
It’s wanting to tell them something and realizing they’re asleep because of the time difference. It’s watching your kids hit milestones and wishing more than anything that their dad could be standing right there watching too.
It’s taking a million pictures and videos because you’re constantly trying to make someone feel included in a life they’re temporarily having to watch through a screen.
And somehow, life doesn’t slow down just because part of your family is missing.
You still make dinner. You still do bedtime. You still celebrate birthdays. You still laugh and make memories. You keep life as normal as possible for your kids, even when nothing about having their dad thousands of miles away feels normal.
Some days I’m completely fine. Other days, something as simple as seeing another family together can make me realize how much I miss having mine under the same roof.
But every day that passes is one less day apart.
One less bedtime he has to miss. One less morning without him here. One day closer to hearing the door open instead of hearing his voice through my phone.
Deployment is hard, but I know this season isn’t forever.
And when he finally comes home, I don’t think I’ll ever take the ordinary days together for granted again.
