Thursday, February 2, 2012

8 month old military babies

Our kids are all too familiar with Daddy being gone.
Most military families are... either Daddy or Mommy or even both. 
Unfortunately for us, there have been days, weeks, and many months where the kids didn't get hugs, kisses, alone time, play time, or even story time with Daddy.
However, on the other hand, we have celebrated two homecomings filled with all those missing hugs & kisses.  It is one of the most heart-felt, emotional reunions one can possible experience.
For our children there is something about being 8 months old that seems to be a milestone marker in our family...

Thomas was 8 months old when Daddy left on a deployment to Iraq (Feb 2008) and returned seven months later when Thomas was 15 months old.
As you can imagine, Daddy had to miss many milestones.
 
Abbigail was 3 weeks old when Daddy left for another deployment, this time to Afghanistan, and then returned when she was 8 months old (April 2010).
As with Thomas, Daddy also had to miss many milestones with his baby girl.

That brings us to Marilyn.
She just turned 8 months old this week - however, unlike her brother and sister, she is not dealing with a beginning or the end of a deployment.  Instead, she has in large, had Daddy home on the majority of the nights.  With the exception of a few short trips out of the country or elsewhere, she has always felt the warmth of Daddy's hugs & kisses saying goodnight or good morning.

Just today though, we had to say good-bye to Daddy at 4am at the airport as he jetted off to the other side of the world for work.  Thankfully, it will be short trip (only 2 weeks).  As always, he will be missed by all of us... but thankfully it is a far cry from what we have become all too familiar - long deployments that keep Daddy & his munchkins separated and missing the most important moments of their lives.

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