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Published On: Mar 17, 2007 02:40 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Mar 17, 2007 02:40 PM
My Husband Ships Out
My husband was shipped out this week. The
military calls it deployment. After I dropped off my husband at 5AM at a
military installation I cried as I drove home. My daughter is also sad. She got
out an old photo book that I created for her when she was about 1 year old
called “Who Loves Baby”. She looked at the picture of herself and
her Dad and started to cry. Her tears got all over the pictures and I had to
wipe them down.
2/4/06
My husband at the swearing in ceremony
My husband was shipped out this week. The military calls it deployment. After I dropped off my husband at 5AM at a military installation I cried as I drove home. My daughter is also sad. She got out an old photo book that I created for her when she was about 1 year old called “Who Loves Baby”. She looked at the picture of herself and her Dad and started to cry. Her tears got all over the pictures and I had to wipe them down.
My daughter still doesn’t truly understand what is going on. Perhaps no one does. All she knows is that Dad won’t be there at her birthday when she turns six in April.
My husband is luckily only being deployed to the East Coast of the US. (We live in California.) He is first being stationed in South Carolina and then North Carolina for training. The deployment is only supposed to last 6 months and I pray that his time is not extended. We won’t be able to contact him for the first few weeks, so my daughter will have no way to talk to him. He will be able to write us letters, so I made sure that he had a supply of postcards, stationary, envelopes and stamps before he left. Prior to him leaving my husband gave me his cell phone (they are not allowed to have it during Basic Training) and he also gave me his wedding ring. I think the wedding ring was the hardest thing to take. He said it might be stolen during Basic Training and that he was told to take nothing of value with him. I’m holding onto the wedding ring, his cellphone and a few other personal items that I will return to him once Basic Training is done.
My husband is 36 and he is starting a career in the Army. I call it a mid-life crisis--my husband calls it a sound career move. This all started last year when my husband had kidney stones. He has had kidney stones before, however this is the first time we faced a major medical situation with only catastrophic health insurance coverage. My husband's business shut down in Feb. 2004 and since then we have had only catastrophic health insurance coverage since I am self-employeed. After his kidney stone problems we got our first medical bill. It was from the hospital tests he had done. One X-Ray and one Cat-scan cost us over $2,600 and our Blue Cross Health Insurance only covered $40 of the procedure. I was floored and that was just the first bill. I told my husband in no uncertain terms that he had to get a job and that I didn’t care what it paid as long as it had good health insurance.
So my husband (being my sometimes unpredictable husband) joined the US Army. The health care is better than probably any other job he could get. The health insurance coverage is apparently 100%. My husband has to see a military doctor, but my daughter and I can still see our current physicians.
So we finally have health insurance, but at what cost? I asked my husband if he could get a job with health insurance where his life may not be on the line. But he resolutely decided that the military was the only course of action that he would take. He’s a stubborn man. In the back of my mind I think about Iraq and Afghanistan. Could he be deployed there? How long will he be gone? Could he lose his life (my daughter losing her Dad)? I worry, but I suppose it is best not to worry and just pray when you can. I have been trying to keep my worries and tears to myself. I don’t want to let my daughter see me cry. I have to be strong for the both of us. If I do cry it’s at night when she is sleeping.
I pray this all works out in the end. I have prayed to God telling him that I don’t know if my husband’s choice is the right choice—but for God to lead my husband in whatever the right choice may be. In the meanwhile, I’m a single working parent--something I thought that I would never be. Our family consists of just two members at home now and I think we’re both a little afraid. But I will take some comfort in the fact that my husband is not in Iraq right now. He is safe in South Carolina. I only hope that he continues to be safe and doesn’t ship out overseas.
Last time father and daughter are together prior to shipping
My husband at the swearing in ceremony
My husband was shipped out this week. The military calls it deployment. After I dropped off my husband at 5AM at a military installation I cried as I drove home. My daughter is also sad. She got out an old photo book that I created for her when she was about 1 year old called “Who Loves Baby”. She looked at the picture of herself and her Dad and started to cry. Her tears got all over the pictures and I had to wipe them down.
My daughter still doesn’t truly understand what is going on. Perhaps no one does. All she knows is that Dad won’t be there at her birthday when she turns six in April.
My husband is luckily only being deployed to the East Coast of the US. (We live in California.) He is first being stationed in South Carolina and then North Carolina for training. The deployment is only supposed to last 6 months and I pray that his time is not extended. We won’t be able to contact him for the first few weeks, so my daughter will have no way to talk to him. He will be able to write us letters, so I made sure that he had a supply of postcards, stationary, envelopes and stamps before he left. Prior to him leaving my husband gave me his cell phone (they are not allowed to have it during Basic Training) and he also gave me his wedding ring. I think the wedding ring was the hardest thing to take. He said it might be stolen during Basic Training and that he was told to take nothing of value with him. I’m holding onto the wedding ring, his cellphone and a few other personal items that I will return to him once Basic Training is done.
My husband is 36 and he is starting a career in the Army. I call it a mid-life crisis--my husband calls it a sound career move. This all started last year when my husband had kidney stones. He has had kidney stones before, however this is the first time we faced a major medical situation with only catastrophic health insurance coverage. My husband's business shut down in Feb. 2004 and since then we have had only catastrophic health insurance coverage since I am self-employeed. After his kidney stone problems we got our first medical bill. It was from the hospital tests he had done. One X-Ray and one Cat-scan cost us over $2,600 and our Blue Cross Health Insurance only covered $40 of the procedure. I was floored and that was just the first bill. I told my husband in no uncertain terms that he had to get a job and that I didn’t care what it paid as long as it had good health insurance.
So my husband (being my sometimes unpredictable husband) joined the US Army. The health care is better than probably any other job he could get. The health insurance coverage is apparently 100%. My husband has to see a military doctor, but my daughter and I can still see our current physicians.
So we finally have health insurance, but at what cost? I asked my husband if he could get a job with health insurance where his life may not be on the line. But he resolutely decided that the military was the only course of action that he would take. He’s a stubborn man. In the back of my mind I think about Iraq and Afghanistan. Could he be deployed there? How long will he be gone? Could he lose his life (my daughter losing her Dad)? I worry, but I suppose it is best not to worry and just pray when you can. I have been trying to keep my worries and tears to myself. I don’t want to let my daughter see me cry. I have to be strong for the both of us. If I do cry it’s at night when she is sleeping.
I pray this all works out in the end. I have prayed to God telling him that I don’t know if my husband’s choice is the right choice—but for God to lead my husband in whatever the right choice may be. In the meanwhile, I’m a single working parent--something I thought that I would never be. Our family consists of just two members at home now and I think we’re both a little afraid. But I will take some comfort in the fact that my husband is not in Iraq right now. He is safe in South Carolina. I only hope that he continues to be safe and doesn’t ship out overseas.
Last time father and daughter are together prior to shipping
Posted: Sat - February 4, 2006 at 04:56 AM