My first deployment was so hard. Jeremy was in Iraq and I was alone in Nebraska. Though I had amazing friends around me, I felt so alone. I hated going home to an empty house, and cooking; well forget that. I was home alone and cooking for one. It rarely happened. I went out when I wanted too, shopped for whatever I wanted to get, and went on vacations when I wanted too. I could do what I wanted to, when I wanted too. Well, within reason of course. This deployment is different. This time, I’m not alone and I’m not only thinking about me.
Three months after my husband came home, we found out I was pregnant. Last year in August I had the most amazing child, and named him Ian. He has brought joy, laughter, tears, frustration, love, and companionship. Ian is my buddy. I take him everywhere with me. He travels well and seems to have a pretty good time where ever we go. It’s fun…it really is.
Now, Jeremy is gone again and I knew this deployment was different from the start. We have to think about Ian. How would this tiny baby understand what Afghanistan means? He wouldn’t. He would only know that his daddy was gone, and then after a few days or maybe weeks, he would recover and move on. It would be me, and eventually Jeremy that wouldn’t recover so easily when Ian couldn’t remember his Daddy. How do you fix this? This is the point where the research began, and I started researching what other families have done.
I discovered Operation Give a Hug (http://www.ogah.org/) Flat Daddies (http://flatdaddies.com/). My son will have a doll that the face will be a picture of Jeremy, and now Ian will have a giant cutout of Jeremy and we will take our Daddy Doll and Flat Jeremy everywhere. I am so happy that my family will have “Jeremy” around to be here for us. We have recorded books, will use Skype, use our phone calls, and email. Care packages will be sent, and more and more books will be recorded so Ian will always be able to hear his Daddy’s voice. It’s more than just Ian hearing his Daddy’s voice; it’s me hearing my husband’s voice and seeing that visual reminder of how great he is, not just as an Airman, but as my chosen life partner.
Deployments aren’t easy, and with these reminders it will be just a little easier. Stay tuned for the Reynolds adventures with Flat Jeremy. It should be a fun spring and summer.
2 comments:
You should totally take Flat Jeremy everywhere and take pictures of him--like the traveling gnome in the Travelocity commercials. Love you, honey.
Good luck Miss Susan! My Dave took a deployment when Jacob was 11-16 months old and I remember not even having time for my own emotions...I was so busy watching our little guy grow up and I wanted to make sure Dave could see as much of it as he could!
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