Third D-Day

Unfortunately, yes, we are approaching the beginning of my husband's third deployment. 

We got the text about a month ago, at the time saying they wanted him to leave the EXACT same day as he did last year. Only this time was for 3 months instead of 6. (Thank god!) Despite the shortened trip, I was floored. The words hit me like a ton of bricks. He JUST got home! I had this overwhelming urge to be furious (at no one in particular) and cry. I successfully fought off the urge to be angry. Not so successful with the tears. We stayed up talking for what felt like hours. 

This was the first time my husband had any resemblance of a choice in his leaving. We had discussed the possibility of this happening before. Which we had done after his first deployment as well, and he ended up not beig needed for the subsequent deployment.

So this was a decision we had to make. It was hard. I knew that this deployment (his first as an aircraft commander) is an incredible opportunity for him career wise. He needs the hours to get to a place he wants to be before we PCS. 

I also knew that he would miss a second year of some holidays with Elise. Halloween, his own birthday, and Thanksgiving. I knew him being gone the exact time of year as he was for his 6 month deployment would be rough. I also knew we would have to cancel our long awaited trip for just the two of us to Washington DC and my ten year reunion. You read about things like that happening to military families a lot, but we had been lucky before now. It's definitely not the end of the world, but I would be lying if I said it didn't sting a little. 

In the end, after weighing our options, pros and cons, and our emotions, we decided he should go. 

I can't describe how difficult it is to weigh the " well you won't be in the military forever, and I don't want you to regret anything or feel like you didn't do everything you wanted/needed to do" against the "our baby will only be this age once. No matter what you do, you NEVER get this time back" Both of which makes our chests ache and stomachs turn. But we figured since this deployment is expected to be much shorter (back by Christmas), it was worth the sacrifice on our family's part this go around. 

So into a third deployment we go. Together. Already looking forward to that amazing reunion.