Fact of Life

I've realized something over the last few weeks that sort of makes me sad. It first happened when a friend of mine from high school said that she and her husband haven't spent the last 2 summers together because of the Army. I then realized that she's in the same boat I'm in. Or was in until this deployment ended.

In about 2 weeks, my husband will have been in the Army for 2 years. This is the first summer we've spent together since then. In fact, this will be the first time in 2 years that we'll have some sort of normalcy. Let me give you the rundown.

July 21, 2009: Joe shipped out to basic {BCT}. 

October 1, 2009: Joe graduated from BCT.

October 4, 2009: Joe started AIT which was approximately 21 weeks long.

December 2, 2009: I moved to GA, where Joe was at AIT. Joe continued to live in the barracks, only coming home in the evenings for 2-4 hours and staying every weekend.

April 2010: Joe graduated AIT. We PCSed to Hawaii.

May 21, 2010 (ish): Moved into our house.

June 10, 2010 (ish): HHG arrived.

June 26, 2010: Begin deployment #1.

June 21, 2011: End deployment #1.

So, yeah. It's been 2 years of constant changes and adjustments. 2 years of never knowing when we'll actually be together again. Looking back, I'm incredibly thankful that I was able to move to GA when he was in AIT. Though we didn't get a whole lot of time together and I still slept alone on most days, I treasured that time. I treasured it even more after he deployed. I can only imagine how I would have dealt with the deployment if I hadn't gotten to be with him during 6 months of AIT. As hard as it was, I think it would have been much harder if I hadn't had that extra time. 

I'm thankful every day that he's here. He's safe and we get to spend time together. Lots of time. Reverse SRP is good for that kind of thing. =) Going in late, coming home early... I don't know what I'm going to do when he has to really go back to work after block leave!! I know there is a TDY in our near (ish) future, but I'm just happy to have him home. I look forward to finding our "normal" routine and having him home every day. Some days it's like he never left and others I find myself reveling in the fact that he's actually home. 

I know there are going to be changes, TDYs and trainings....but today I'm just glad he's here.