A Shift

In the past couple of weeks, the emotions Chris and I are experiencing have gone from waiting mode to impending. Our time has suddenly shifted from deployment being far away to it feeling more real and, at times, right around the corner. Chris has begun spending more time at his unit in preparation; getting paperwork in order, finalizing flight plans, beginning to learn the language. Those things on top of the school year winding down all bring a sense of reality to his leaving.

I heard a song come on the radio yesterday called Just a Kiss (Lady Antebellum) and I can’t even tell you any of the other lyrics because the title alone brought me to tears. I began counting how many more days I have left to kiss Chris good morning or good night and felt the weight of all the time ahead that I would not be able to do those things. The reality for us right now is that there is no such thing as *just* a kiss or *just* holding hands. Each of those things has changed from being a part of our daily life to treasured moments before we no longer have the opportunity for quite some time.

It is also amazing in the midst of these emotions how much we can experience the one-ness that God designed for marriage. Chris got home last night and had also had a hard day processing deployment. We share in our struggle and are connected in it and through it. Thankfully, with our boys we have some comic relief built into every day. Last night was no exception…

Brody put on quite the amazing show for us. A few weeks back, he got to go with grandma to see his Auntie Betsy in a play at her high school (Pirates of Penzance) and ever since then we have  been attending plays in our house almost nightly with a pretty humorous pirate playing all the roles. So, last night, Chris and I got to be in the audience waiting for the curtains to open and watch the most precious growling pirate come on stage. Any other day, this would have simply been a hysterical, funny moment to enjoy, but through the lens of deployment, it was bitter-sweet as we both realized it was moments like this that will be missed for more than a year. We let that little pirate “Arrrrghhhh” his way right through to bedtime!