The Loneliness

A lone ponderosa pine tree under a cloud-filled sky

I think the hardest part of this deployment has been the loneliness.

Not that I'm ever alone! I can't even get a thought in sometimes without being interrupted by someone needing something. It's lonely all the same though.

My best friend is gone. He has always worked long hours, but I'm so used to having him to reconnect with in the evening, to hang out with on the weekends, to make road trips with and talk to throughout his work day.

We email each other and IM, but it's not the same. We used skype for a while, but it was more frustrating than anything. One of us was always having a problem with the signal or our microphone. We weren't communicating very well on it :)

Lots of wives hang out together during deployments and keep each other busy. They go do things and travel and visit family. I can't do that though. I don't have a babysitter and honestly, I don't really want to leave my kids anywhere.

We don't live on post, so I'm not surrounded by other lonely wives.

When it comes down to it though, I don't really want to hang out with a bunch of lonely wives anyway. I want to hang out with my husband. That's why I married him :)

The days are going by quickly. Redeployment plans are being made and that makes it feel more real. I know that 3 months is still a while, but I've made it through 9 already!! We're in the home stretch.