Coming home with no homecoming

I am so extremely frustrated. This deployment is bad enough without having to "fight" for things that are just given to everyone else. So now because 1 or 2 people have said they don't want an official homecoming ceremony, it looks like there will not be one for anyone. Let's see what else we can do to make it seem as though MY family means nothing.

I have waited SIX MONTHS to see my husband and our 2-year old has waited SIX MONTHS to see her daddy and of course we will be celebrating and having our own homecoming, but the "official" YAY! the soldiers are home! Homecoming ceremony will never be.

So I am going to write to whomever I can to let them know that DEPLOYMENTS SUCK (sorry can't think of a better word to use) and to make it even worse deployments with ZERO support from our "military friends" (I use the term "friends" very loosely) suck even more.

Just because my soldier isn't living on a base doesn't make his life (and HOMECOMING) any less important. Just because my soldier's deployment date was moved up, making an FRG "impossible" doesn't mean I don't need support. And just because my soldier happens to be with other soldiers who don't want to take the time to participate in a homecoming ceremony doesn't mean the other soldiers coming home with him and our families don't want the homecoming that EVERY soldier deserves.

I just want to scream and shout and let everyone know that what you see on TV doesn't happen for everyone. The crowds of people with banners welcoming home the troops apparently only happens if the "right" people want it to happen.

So guess what?????? I am going to MAKE it happen! I may not be able to have an "official-stamped-with-the-Army's-seal" homecoming ceremony, but I will have a homecoming celebration complete with many people holding signs and wearing t-shirts welcoming MY soldier home. No one can stop that!

What happened????

My mom took my daughter for the evening, so I could get some work done. As soon as she pulled out of the driveway, I had tears come to my eyes. I felt like my whole life just left... first my husband and now my baby. I know it's a good thing for my daughter to spend time away from me. It's good for both of us. I just reacted in an unexpected emotional way. I took a nice, long bath and read a parenting magazine, then made dinner and worked for awhile. But just a few minutes after my daughter left, my husband called me. He called me yesterday to tell me he was leaving the country and where he would be going. Then called me today to tell me where he is. It's hard to believe he will be gone for such a long time without seeing us at all. He was deployed for a year to Ft. Leonard Wood, but we were close enough we saw each other almost every weekend. He was been to Benning and Huachuca too for several months each time. But each time he flew home and/or I flew there to see him to break up the time. This is the longest he will be away without coming home and the first time in our 10 year marriage that we will not be together for Christmas. I hear our daughter every time she hears anything that remotely sounds like a door opening saying "Daddy's here?" and it breaks my heart. I have to tell her "No, daddy's not here. He won't be home for a long time." Tonight she pointed to our large wedding portrait and said,"I see Daddy." So I took her to the picture and she said, "I touch it." Even though her daddy has been gone many times before and for longer periods of time, she already must sense this is way different. She wears her little pin proudly proclaiming "A piece of my heart is in Afghanistan" and doesn't want to take it off. We also have a bowl of m&ms next to her fish. Every morning she feeds her fish and eats 1 m&m. When the m&ms are gone, daddy will be home. I don't think I will ever get used to this.