We have expected for quite a while that dh would deploy in January. We were pretty prepared for this, and if this does happen, it should only be 4-6 months with his branch of the service. We have recently found out, though, that he has a good possibility of going with another branch to Afghanistan for 15 months. This would mean ds would be 3 1/2 when he leaves and almost 5 when he gets back. So we are pretty stressed. Please keep us in your prayers. They are waiting until Friday to see if anyone volunteers, and if there are no takers, they have already made a non-vol list. So hopefully we will know either way by next week.
This is probably a whole different thread but a couple of suggestions: record you dh reading books that your son likes so you can play them for him. Also, make a scrapbook or photo album filled with pix that you can pull out to help your son keep his memory fresh. By the time we had kids, my dh was already out of the service and I was fortunate to stay at the same base for 5 years with no deployment. That would have been sooo hard to leave my little ones. They were only 4, 3 and 1 when I got out. Another idea is have your dh pick out inexpensive special occasion goodies that your son could open here and there.
Thanks, guys. I had started a thread a while back about deployment ideas and you guys had some great ones we will definitely be doing, whether he has to be gone for 4 months or 15 months. They have upped the number of family doctors they want to go, and dh has 5 years of active duty with no deployments. They count the first 3 years against them even though they were not eligible for deployment then. I guess they are not expecting any volunteers because they have told them that they have already made a non-vol list.:?
