The homecoming is just days away now and my nerves are starting to get the best of me. I can feel my blood pressure going up when I think about it. All those butterflies are coming back and man are they are flying nonstop. It feels like I am getting ready for our first date again: the excitement, the nerves, all the possibilities of what could happen. In a way, homecomings are a first date. Thankfully we will start this date with a kiss instead of waiting all night for it! There will be hugs, fantastic, long hugs where you melt into his arms. You feel a shiver through you when your lips touch for the first time in months. I can't wait for that kiss. But just like our first date, we are going to have to get acquainted. Or reacquainted actually. I'm beyond excited to get my husband back and I am really curious to see how he has grown as a person during that time.
Deployments affect people in a multitude of ways. Some people can't stand deployments. They will hate every moment of the time away no ifs, ands, or buts about it. On the other hand, there are others who thrive during deployments. They use it as time for themselves or to get out and see the world. Whether someone is an A or a B, situations like that can either take a toll on you or bring out the best in you. Deployments often change people. But what we don't realize is that people change a little bit every single day whether they are around you or not; even in the most insignificant ways. You or your spouse can change physically, mentally even spiritually sometimes during a deployment. People are organic beings, we are constantly growing and evolving. We should all keep that in the back of our minds, especially during the times apart. The only way to grow together when you are thousands of miles apart is communication. Whether it is through email, skype, phone calls or snail mail, just talk. Even when they only have a few seconds and all they can squeeze in is an "I love you", take it and live in it until you can hear their voice again.
Now that we are nearing the end of this deployment, we are looking back as a couple and seeing all the ways that we have changed. We are lucky that during the time apart we grew together. This deployment actually brought us closer. It helped to strengthen our marriage. We had opportunities that are rare for deployments. I had the opportunity to go overseas and see him. We were able to talk almost every day that it was available. It was pretty similar to the beginning of our relationship. We were a long distance couple almost our entire dating time. The only time we lived in the same city was our first month of dating, the rest of it was phone calls and skype dates. We are old pros at long distance. Now we have the task of learning to live together again. It's the little things that we will have to readjust to, like who's cooking breakfast on Saturday or what show gets recorded tonight. But I am honestly looking forward to those decisions. We'll hold off on the bigger conversations until he's been back for a few months and is fully acclimated back to regular life. (But I have warned him the baby timing talk is coming soon!)
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