The conversations have already begun to be distant. He already isn't the man that left just a week ago. The Army prepares the soldiers to become soldiers. They make them into someone else so that they concentrate on the job ahead of them. They leave who they are behind and they go as another entity.
We don't.
We remain. We are still home. We are still doing everything we used to do. We still get up every morning to the same pattern and we remain the same. But we are missing a piece of our lives. They aren't missing anything in this new life of theirs. I know they have to survive and I would give them any tools they needed to do so, but how do our hearts and emotions survive this. I want him to miss me and I really want to hear some emotion in his voice when he tells me he loves me. I have had a dream almost every night this past week that we were splitting up. While I may go on my day to day activities, and I have been busy, I guess this fear still sits in my gut until I go to sleep and then it lets me know it hasn't released me.
I saw a soldier in the store yesterday and I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to see my husband's face when he turned around. I wanted it to be some horrible mistake that I thought he was gone, but that he was really home and everything was ok. But it wasn't his face and I my heart sank. I have a hard time looking at couples holding hands or doing something silly like he and I used to do. A friend reminded me that it has only been a week and things will get better with time. But will it? Will it hurt less when he calls and inside I am screaming for some show of love but on the outside stay strong? Will it be ok when we don't talk for weeks and I'm wondering if it's because he doesn't want to or can't?
My hope is that I can look back at this blog a year from now and be able to say that I have learned something about myself. I hope I can say that I am stronger because of it. I hope I can put an end to this chapter and find myself ready to start a new life with my husband by my side. I guess my biggest fear is that that won't happen.
Out of all the emotions I should be feeling, why am I feeling angry? Why is everything that bugged me about him before coming to the surface and bugging me now. This is when I should be bending over backwards to show him how much I love him. The other night he called to ask when my birthday was. I felt so valued. Insert sarcastic sound here. I know everything about him and he can't even remember when my birthday is? Anyway, I was really sick to my stomach that night and I had to go, like immediately, so after answering his question I said I really don't feel good and I have to let you go. So he starts about how I don't want to talk to him. I explained that I wasn't feeling good and he actually said so you are admitting you don't want to talk to me. I told him he could call me back, but I really had to go right now and I love him. He mumbled it back and hung up. I haven't talked to him since. So I've been asking myself why I bend over backwards to get him everything he could possibly need or want and show him I love him and how much he means to me and he can't understand that I was sick. He never even called to make sure I was ok. It really hurts that I will be putting my whole life on hold for someone who doesn't seem to really care all that much unless I'm not meeting his needs. And I'm angry that I feel like this because I do love him and I'm scared and I miss him and I hate that all that has to be marred by feelings of guilt. I give up.
Wow, so much has happened over the last few days. He left very early Sunday morning. I took him to the armory around midnight Saturday night. It was so weird. Trying to think of something to say that would truly represent what I was feeling about him and the next year and every emotion I could lump into one phrase. But I couldn't. All I could do was hug him and try to remember how his arms felt around me. How his lips felt against mine and try to committ that to my memory for the next year. Then we said "See ya later...." and I watched him walk into the armory. And I got in the car and drove away.
All the emotions came over me and I sobbed while I drove home. Then I walked into the house and his work boots were sitting next to the bed and his jeans with the belt still in them that he was just wearing a few hours ago hung on the closet hook and I the strangest feeling hit me that he would be home in a few hours. He really wasn't leaving for a year. And then the deepest sadness I have ever felt hit my stomach and my chest and I felt I had just lost my best friend.
So far, I have left the jeans and the boots where they are and his basket full of clean laundry that is by his dresser. I just can't let it go yet. As much as I want to clean, I just want things to remain the way that they were when he left. This has been much harder than I thought it would be. I thought after a few weeks is when it would hit me because I was used to him being gone that long, but it's already the hardest thing I've have felt.
We had the deployment ceremony yesterday. It was gutwrenching, but at the same time I felt less alone. As I was trying to hide my own tears I looked around and watched them fall around me. Children, moms & dads, wives, girlfriends, friends and I realized that I'm not abnormal for how I've been feeling, as much as he tries to make me think I am. A kid sitting next to me said "deployment sucks". Well, doesn't that sum it up. Nothing could be added to that, I could only agree.
So here we are at the end of a years worth of prep. Now the emotions are higher and now I'm mad. I'm mad that he can walk around and not seem to care that he's going. Ok, protect yourself, protect me whatever, but I need to know you love me. I need to know that waiting here for a year in constant anxiety will be worth it when you get home. That you want to get home to me. Any sign.....anything?
But no. We lose our husbands before they even go. Who will they be when they come back? Who will we be? Is it wrong to want to talk instead of watch tv? Is it wrong to just want to hold each other until we go to sleep? Is it wrong to want to love you?
It will soon be here. That final hug. The final look. The final kiss. The final drive home alone.
Yes, you read that title correctly. I found out last night that the last weekend I thought we would have, we won't have. I can't take one more thing. Everything gets taken away. Everything has changed a thousand times. Just grin and bear it, Kim. You don't matter one bit.
I just want it to be over, this up and down. I want it to begin so my only concern can be that I miss him and wondering how he is doing. I feel like I'm fighting a battle alone against enemies that keep changing so they are always fresh. They never tire of the game that is making my insides raw. I had to leave the house last night so I could go to the river and sit in my car and cry. A real, rip it out of my guts cry. Because I'm sick of hiding aroung the house trying to be ok so that he doesn't get upset. I'm sick of being what everyone else needs. I'm sick of the stupid things people say to you that's supposed to make it all better. I'm sick of pretending that I'm ok. I'm sick of being awake!
This is a raw post and for that I apologize, but I have to say that this is the hardest thing I have ever had to do and the hardest part hasn't even happened yet. I felt like someone was sitting on my chest last night. I couldn't breath and yet I wanted to scream. I wanted to not love him so it wouldn't matter. I wanted to pretend that this doesn't have anything to do with me and that it doesn't hurt. I don't know what to do with myself. My thoughts bang in my head and my heart feels like it will explode. I hate this. I hate all of this. With every fiber of my being I wish that he didn't need to be a soldier. That he didn't volunteer to do this because the other guys were going and they are brothers. I wish I mattered more to him that he wouldn't have wanted to go. I wish I would have never loved a soldier.
But I did. I do. I love him more than I have ever loved another. Yet, I look at him and wonder, what is so special about this man that makes me want to stop all life around us for just one look from him. One moment with him that matters. One anything with him. Does he feel that way about me? I have no idea. He can't show much emotion right now and that is its own bitter arrow in my heart. When he tells me that he will always be here for me, it mocks me. It actually hurts because I want to scream back at him, "No, you won't be. You chose to leave me. You chose someone else was more important that us. You chose the war over our relationship." But I can't scream any of that stuff. It matters only to me. It hurts only me. It is the pain that I carry in my rucksack, and now I'm starting my 400 day march.
Meltdown......total and complete. Last night I found out I will be going to the ceremony by myself because they need him to be on duty. Ok, so all the other families get to go with their soldier, but not me. Is this what military life will always be about? Just take it, keep your mouth shut, there's nothing you can do.
He told me my eyes were filled with dispair last night. I give up.
We spent a wonderful weekend together, just the two of us. It was perfect in every way. We really are best friends, even if we didn't get the extra special gift of loving each other. He's even starting to take a moment to tell me how much he loves me. He said he isn't looking forward to saying goodbye. Me either. I haven't cried in front of him this week and I hope not to during this week. He knows how deeply I love him and how hard this is so why make it harder on him? I need to show him that I'm ok and that I will be fine while he is gone. All he needs to do is come back home to me.
I'm off of work on the 21st and that's probably the day I will let all this stress go and have a hot bubble bath and a good cry.
Ok, as some of you may have noticed I changed the design of my blog. Instead of the black forboding look, I went into more natural colors. I did have a reason for it and it wasn't just to play, although I am a computer nerd at heart and I do enjoy learning new stuff.
Anyway, I did it because I felt as though I should begin anew. I re-read a lot of my posts and realized how whiny and weak they sounded. I don't regret posting them because those thoughts are truly how I felt at the time and I wanted to be as raw as I can be on this blog. What I do regret is that I didn't immediately have the inner strength I thought I would have. I regret that I moved my house to a sand foundation.
What I hope to accomplish this year that he is gone is a better sense of myself. More confidence, more backbone, more strength, a bigger set!!!! I hope to be able to look back and mock myself for how weak I ONCE was and am now no longer.
All those feelings I talked about are real. I will miss him. I will worry about him. I will get upset because he isn't in bed beside me. I will want to rage when something amazing happens and he isn't there to share it with. I will be bitter when I need a hug and there's no one there to give it to me. But all those things can't be helped, but they can be dealt with better. I can be stronger than I have been and I will be. Stay tuned and hold me accountable when I falter. I welcome all your advice and comments. And for everyone of you that have reached out to me to encourage me or just share the moment with me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You all offer something to me that is unique in it's own way and something that I will always keep with me during this time. We are not alone. We will survive. We will thrive.
You may have read the title and thought....huh? Then again, those of you familiar with the military way of doing things may not even give it a passing thought. I'm happy that we have a few more days together, especially since they are weekend days and we can actually hang out. Yet somehow I think we won't be hanging out in a comfy way. We'll probably be running around packing the last minute things trying not to get on each other's nerves, I'll shut down and then he'll realize I'm not talking anymore and try to apologize and I'll give him the it's ok smile when really my insides are seizing. I wonder if they know how much we are feeling inside that we can't let out. I wonder how much they are feeling but won't let out. He's already in the "it's just a job" mode and he has to do his job. No emotion to it, nothing to let me know that this affects him too. Inside though, I feel a little dead. Maybe everything has finally spilled over and hit the shut off valve.
I had a great talk with my daughter last night. She's 8 and I thought that she and my son didn't really understand the full impact of Scrapper being gone for a whole year. He's gone away for a few weeks, which seems long to them, but he's always come home. I didn't think they realized what this was meaning. But last night my daughter said that she worries about him leaving and how she's scared that something will happen to him and how sad I'm going to be because I just married him and it's really not fair that he has to leave. She said she didn't want to say anything to me because she didn't want me to be sad about it. So, now I know that my kids do understand and they are trying to protect me.
8 days left....tick tock, tick, tick, tick......
So today I decided to give my husband a blog name. I have read other blogs and the wives have a nickname for their hubby so it came to me today, like a smell that reminds you of something familiar.
His name forevermore shall be Scrapper.
As you scream for the answer of why.....let me tell you. Settle down in front. Ok. My husband is not a big guy, BUT for the love all that is unholy, DO NOT MESS WITH HIM!!!!!!! He cracks me up sometimes with his stories of fighting with this guy or that guy and honestly, I kind of thought that he was telling me the stories to impress me. Well, when I was at the armory for the blessed FRG event, this guy came up to him to ask about a formation and he honestly looked scared to talk to my husband. My husband????? He's a big loveable goofball. Of course, I won't let out that little secret to "the guys". But really, it was a bit of amusement for the day. Especially, considering my impression of him before we started dating. I'll tell that story one day on the blog, when I need to reminisce a little while he's gone. I love the story and I love my little Scrapper!!!!
I can't help it, it makes me smile every time I write it.
Nine days left until "the day". It doesn't quite seem real yet, like someone is going to pop up and say "ha! I got ya". I don't think I'm grasping all of this anymore. I'm kind of on autopilot. There is so much do on top of regular life that I don't know what I'm feeling. He's gone today for just an overnight trip for supplies and I'm almost looking forward to a night alone. How messed up is that????? He's leaving next week and I want a night alone?!?!??!? What is wrong with me?
I have been diligent in reading about other couples who are dealing with a deployment and how they ended up fighting all the time before he left because the tension was just so high. I would read those while sitting on my soapbox thinking, we won't do that because we love each so much and we won't want to waste any time with fighting.
STUPID!!!!!
There, I said it for you. Yes, I thought I could make things ok as long as I prepared the best I could for all that was to happen.
WRONG!!!!!
We have fought, I have cried, he has shut down and together we are miserable. We are polar opposites. I want to be closer to him before he goes. To hold on to our memories and make a few more before he leaves. To be the couple that we were when we decided our lives wouldn't be the same without the other. To hold on to something that just isn't there anymore. And he is shutting down. Closing off from what he probably feels will hurt him in the long run. Me. The kids and our lives together.
Part of me says fight for it, keep working on it, keep letting him know that you love him so much. But the rest of me is just so tired. Emotionally, I'm drained. I'm exhausted. I walk around with this crushing feeling in my chest every day now, and I don't know how to fight for something when the other person is just so far away, emotionally. Do I think he loves me? Yes, but I don't think he can show me the way I desperately need him to right now. Should I be more understanding? Yes, I think I should be and I do try to understand, but it hurts so bad when you want to be closer to someone because you love them and they won't allow it for whatever reason.
How do you not break during this time?
I will, at times, suddenly get tears in my eyes and want to curl up and disappear from everyone and just cry as hard and as long as I can. But I don't. I do take moments during my shower when I will just let the tears fall amidst the water, but even then I have to be careful becaues we have reached that comfortable place in our marriage that he feels he can use the bathroom while I'm in there either showering or doing my hair or makeup. The jury is still out on that one from me, but I digress.
In three weeks I will have to say goodbye. I don't have a choice and I don't have an option of feeling anything about it at this point. It is going to happen regardless. He will start talking about deployment stuff and I find myself drifting off where before every word out of his mouth was like water to a desert nomad. I just don't want to get near it. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to plan it. I don't want to figure out what we are going to do. I don't want to know what I have to do in case something happens to him. I don't want to cry anymore.
But I do.
I cry everyday in my own silent way because the only man I have ever truly loved is leaving and I don't know if I will ever see him again. And no I'm not thinking about him not coming home to me physically, but what frightens me more is him coming home but never being him again. My dreams for the future all had him there....him, the man he is. What if he doesn't want our life anymore when he gets home? What if he suffered so much that he will never be able to love again or be loved? There are those that would say to not think of such things, but I am a realist. And realistically, those things could happen.
How am I going to say goodbye?
God, let him be ok. Bring him home to me at the end of this year of hell. I'll do anything, just bring him back. I know I'm selfish when so many other wives and family members are experiencing the same thing and those of them who aren't going to have them come home, but God please help us all get through this. If it can't end, then please make time go by faster. Make the nights shorter so I won't have to lay awake in our bed wondering where he is and if he's ok. Make my heart like steel so it won't hurt while he's gone. Freeze my tears and don't let them fall until I'm safe in his arms again. But God, if you have to ignore me during this year so that you can stay by his side, then I will find a way. Just bring him home again.
I had not written for awhile. I wasn't sure what to do because we didn't know for sure if he was deploying. Today, it became definite. I did know somewhere in my heart that he would be but yet I wasn't prepared. Strangely I feel a tad more peaceful because now I know what to focus on dealing with, but at the same time I have that going over the first hill on a roller coaster feeling in my stomach. There's no turning back and we only have a few weeks left. How do you do it? How do you act like everything is ok and there isn't this mind numbing loud ticking going on all around you.
I don't even know what to say. I'm scared to death and I'm not even completely sure why.
Being the wife of a soldier is frustrating! He's been gone so much during our marriage that I realized that I saw him more while we were dating. I want to be with him but the other part of me feels so angry and helpless to do anything about it that I want to shut him out. Keep him away from my heart that hurts so bad sometimes that I can feel it inside me. I can't talk to him about it because he just gets angry with me. Sometimes I feel like he wants me to love him but only during the times that he has scheduled for it. If I stray from that time period then he's mad.
So, you may ask why do I love him then. I can't honestly say anymore. All the things that were there before are either gone or so few and far between that they are only memories. But I still do love him and that's why it hurts so bad. And if one more person tells me I knew what I was getting into while I'm sad that my husband isn't here I will lose it!!!! Yes, I knew he was in the Army, did I know how exactly it was going to feel to miss him so much and be worried so much, and to not sleep so much, and to be scared so much, and to be frustrated so much, and to want to hide from anything that might hurt more so much.......NO!!!!! I DID NOT!!!! I'm sorry I may not be as strong as all those women out there that can look at me and tell me that, but they have never been married to the Army. They have never had to give up control over their own lives at the whims of "report here tomorrow...." "stay longer" "we don't know when we are sending you home"....and my personal favorite "spend time with your family before you deploy" (except they always tell them this while they have taken them AGAIN and they are there and there is no more family time left. I wish I could just dance around my days and sing that line to myself...."laa laa laa I knew what I was getting into.....laa laa laa" and everything would make sense and all my emotions and thoughts would go back to the way they used to be before all this, but stupidly enough, I can't or don't or whatever, but it doesn't happen. Maybe I could find a group that could teach me the ways of "staters of the obvious" but until then I'm left to my own devices and pillows to cry into at night.
Nothing smells like him anymore.....I can't picture him there anymore.....I cringe when the phone rings because I want to talk to him so bad, but I'm so afraid to....I'm afraid I'll give away the fact that I love him so much and I miss him and then he's going to get angry and be mad at me and we'll leave a conversation like that and I'll have to live with it until he calms down enough to call me again. But yeah, I knew what I was getting into.
I have decided....I know which is worse....it's definitely the up and down. I thought the deployment would be unbearable but I was wrong. I had actually gotten to the point where I was dealing with it and I was ok. I knew it was coming and all my worrying about it wasn't going to make it better or change it. So, I finally reached a place inside myself where I felt some peace.
BAMMO
I have good news. He was offered a job at the armory here in the states to fill a position that needs to be filled while they are deployed. So that was dropped on us last month. He actually told them he would have to talk to his wife about it before he told them if he wanted it or not. I looked at him and asked him if he actually thought I would prefer he deployed. Talk about wanting to smack someone. But in a poised and dignified response I said " Oh Dear, that would be lovely if you were to be able to remain home." Ok, maybe it wasn't quite like that, but I said that it would be wonderful. We both operated under no delusions and upon his going to the armory the next day we both knew that this was going to hurt us in the end, so we continued to live and have discussions as if he will be deployed.
I fought and fought to not even think of it. To not think that we would be together for our first anniversary, that he would be home for our first christmas as a family, that he would be able to help me decide what to do with the house, that we could go camping on the weekends, that he would be by my side almost every night when I fall asleep. No, I didn't think about all that stuff at all.
I'm lying to you all......I thought about it and got sick to my stomach because I knew I was setting myself up to be more hurt, more angry, more betrayed when it all fell out from under us. He was supposed to find out today if he got the job. When he called last night (he's away for training again) I asked him how they were going to let him know. He said he would be back in time to sign the papers. In my confused civilian way, I said "I'm confused" he said "oh I got the job." Just like that.....no guess what?!!?!? Nothing.....I asked him if he wasn't happy about it and he said he was, but I don't think he is now. I think he's going to feel guilty that he isn't going with his guys and he will change his mind.
My stomach is ripped to shredds. I have a steady diet of tums now. So many ups and downs. Never knowing how to feel. For I think the first time last night, I didn't want to talk to him. I told him he sounded tired and he should get some good sleep, but honestly I just didn't want to talk to him. I didn't want my happy bubble to explode quite yet. And I don't know how much more my system can take. I can deal with him staying (obviously) and I know I will find a way to deal with him going (like I was beginning to), but never knowing what will happen today is overwhelming me.
Besides, what will I do with this blog if he's here? Eh, I'm sure I'll find something to gripe about.
We talked a little yesterday about some things that were bothering me about what is happening to us. I know if there are any guys reading this you're probably feeling his pain about having to have a girly talk about feelings. But, I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't sleep and being near him was making me feel like a trapped animal. This is the man that I love and committed my life to and I couldn't be near him. Ignoring those feelings didn't seem to be an option.
Of course, as most men do, he shut down in the beginning. I explained to him that I can't live this way anymore. I can't do limbo. Either I have to shut him out of my heart completely or we need to work on this. He's always told me that together we can handle anything and our strength as a couple was grounded in our ability to talk to each other about anything. Yet here we were, facing the biggest and scariest thing in our relationship and we can't talk about it. I just had had enough. I told him I needed him and I need his help and of course he snapped at me about what do I want him to do. He doesn't have answers for me. All this time, he thought all I needed was to know exactly what was going to happen, what it would feel like, how long it would last, etc. That just wasn't true. What I needed was to know that he was feeling stuff too. I felt like I was so alone in how I was feeling and I started to feel like I was crazy. He said he thinks about stuff all the time and I told him I just need for us to be able to talk through this together. To handle this obstacle in our lives together. I just can't do it alone.
Once he was done feeling like I was just being a girl and really heard me, he calmed down and he promised he would start opening up more. This is all new to him too because last time he deployed he didn't have a family waiting for him at home. I can understand that, I can understand anything, just not pretending this isn't happening.
I really want my friend back. The one that I could stay up all night and talk to about anything and who could talk to me about anything. I don't need some fake bravado or "protection" from the truth. I want the real stuff. I want to feel normal again. I don't want to feel so alone lying next to my husband anymore.
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. Maybe that's why I haven't written, I just don't know how to put my thoughts into words. We watched the movie Home of the Brave last night. It was so hard to watch it because some of the things that were happening in the movie, I worry about with my husband. What will things be like when he gets home?
But lately, I don't even know what to feel. It's going to be happening soon and yet I feel almost a dead feeling inside like I'm anxious to get it over with, the him leaving part. I don't know what to act like with him. He's been different too. He says he's happy and still want to be married to me and have our lives together, but something inside him is different and it isn't good. I never used to feel like I had to do damage control with the kids because of him, but now I do. I never thought I would have to walk on egg shells with him, but now I do. The stress of all of this is truly wearing me down and I just don't know how much I can take.
Is loving someone enough? I know marriage is hard and we've had to wade through things that normal newlyweds don't necessarily face so early on, but will we be ok? Will I want to be ok? I'm just so angry and hurt and scared. I love him and want to grab on to him and hold him and at the same time I want to run as far away as I can, just to feel normal again. He says I'm the perfect wife, but I'm not and I carry these feelings inside me like I'm living a lie. I'm lost and right now, I don't want to be found.
I'm in a horrible mood today. So much has been going on in the last 3 weeks that I think I'm finally having my melt down about it and by melt-down I mean that I'm feeling angry and bitter and like a trapped animal that has to get away. My parents used to have a campsite that I would escape to and has been part of who I am since birth, but this year they decided to move the trailer to a new place that has more stuff to do because of the kids and it won't be ready until next spring. BUT, I need to get out!!!!! I need that someplace to escape to and since I have kids taking a unguided road trip and sleeping in the car won't be happening.
Now mind you, I have PMS this week and it's possible that what I'm feeling is solely related to that, but I also believe that the things that I successfully shove into the recesses of my dark little mind during my "sane" weeks comes out because I'm weaker and can't fight them as well.
My most distressing issue right now is that I'm sick of changing things all the time. Is he coming home this week, will he have to go somewhere else, how long will I get to see him, when is he leaving for real, how long will he be gone.......and on and on. There are NO answers and if you're part of the military you better just suck it up and deal with it. My life, that I had been so controlling of just a few short years ago is spinning our of control at the whims of other people and there is not one thing that I can do about it!!!!
I really just want to be a family and worry about stupid stuff like what's for dinner and is there enough detergent to do all the laundry today. No thoughts about war or living or dying or loneliness or fear. Just planning a family vacation for next year. Christmas shopping together without wondering if this will be our first and last christmas together. Oh sure, you all may think I'm messed up and I would have to agree, but this blog is about me being honest and honestly I wonder everyday if I finally found my sole mate only to have him ripped away from me after a short time together. We've been married for 5 months and have been together for 3 of them. Woooo......hooooo.
I love the man with everything that I could love him with and I would never want to be apart from him, but I hate this life and I don't know how to make the two work together without sacrificing something. I just have been feeling lately like I'm carrying my own rucksack and it's so heavy and I just want to put it down for awhile.