We've got orders!

While James was in Korea, we were to move from GA, to our new base.

I got a call from J one day and he said "we've got orders!" To where?? Alaska!! "Wait, WHAT?? You want me to pick up my daughter and move 4,000 miles away to a cold ass place?? You're nuts and I'm not going!!" I hung up the phone. Nice huh?

Well, obviously I changed my mind. In February of 2007 I returned to Georgia from Wisconsin. I packed up my daughter and all of our stuff. I made the trip, alone with my daughter, across the country. We flew from Atlanta to AZ and from there on to AK. I bought a house and moved all of our stuff into it. Then I waited. I waited until May for James to get 'home' to Alaska. I only knew one person 'Ali'. I didn't know where any thing was. In true military fashion, no one from J's new shop called me, offered me a map, or checked in on me. Talk about putting a bad taste in the mouth, before you've even taken a bite!!

We've had tons of amazing adventures here since. Alaska is gorgeous and I recommend every one get here at least once in their life to see the beauty!! We've seen bear, moose, and bald eagles. We've been through wind storms, earthquakes, and volcanoes. It's an amazing, ever changing world here. We have one more summer here (this is our last year) and the things to do are endless....... I can't wait to see what this year brings us!!

In Dec. we're all going to Wisconsin for a few weeks and James is leaving from there to Russia. Then I'm taking the kids to Florida for some much needed R&R (and distraction from the fact that daddy is gone) in Jan. I don't know when we'll return to Alaska, but I'm guessing in Feb. Where we sit and wait for J to get back, again. Why does it seem we're always waiting for him to return home from some place over seas? This really sucks!

Honey, I'm deploying to Iraq

James and I had been dating for oh, I don't know.... a month! He comes home and says 'Honey, I'm deploying to Iraq.' I knew before agreeing to move in with him he would be deploying at some point. We just didn't realize it would be so soon. He had just gotten home from a 9 month tour in May of 2004, it was only November.

In December we find out it's going to be in January of 2005. We decide to get married before he leaves. More so that if anything happened to him I'd be made aware of it, I could pay his bills while he was over there, I'd have insurance, ect. Our plan was to get married, not tell any one, and just see how it went when he got back.

On December 21st, 2004 we got married. The first week in January, James left for Iraq. He was to do 2 months of training in Texas and then 9 months over in Iraq.

Soon after he left, I discovered I was pg!! I later miscarried that baby, while he was still in Texas.

I cried every single night that he was gone. I went out with friend every day and still, I cried. It just never got easier. And he wasn't even over seas yet!! He was still in the states! How was I going to get through 9 months of him getting shot at??

Right before they were supposed to leave they were told they'd get one weekend of 'leave.' I asked another girlfriend from the shop if she wanted to drive out to TX with me and visit the guys. She cried and said yes!! YAY!!

Soon after, we were on our way to TX. What an adventure that was. We stopped at gas station casinos on the way out there (they have casinos in gas stations down south!! Go figure!). It was awesome! The guys got leave and it was wonderful to see them. It had been 8 weeks since we'd seen them.

We were set to leave on that Monday I believe. We found out over that weekend that the guys were getting the following weekend off too!! We both called our jobs and said we had to stay longer to see our men one last time. We spent the week shopping and site seeing. We went to the Alamo, the River walk, and all kinds of neat things. I really love San Antonio and it will always hold a special part in my heart. I miss Texas.

On Weds. I get a call from James. A (the girl I was with) and I were out to dinner so I missed the call. The voicemail said 'I'm on my way to the hospital, meet me there'. That was it. Nothing more. I FREAKED OUT!! We were at a hotel just outside the base there in San An. I went over to the hospital ER expecting the worse.

When I got there, he wasn't there. I was able to fill out all the paper work for him and get him checked in.... kind of. I still didn't know what was wrong with him! They were doing training, for all I knew, he'd been shot or stabbed! A few minutes later he was wheeled in on a wheelchair. They thought he broke his foot.

Turns out he tore a bunch of ligaments (or something) in his ankle/foot. So, they wrap him up, send him back to camp, and tell him to come in on Friday.

I go in with him to the hospital. The doc. finds out he's at 'camp' getting ready to deploy. He looks at his foot and says 'You can't deploy. There's no way you can carry your bag or run or anything else.' If I could give that man a hug to this day, I would.

James was going to get to come home with me!! We left that Saturday for GA. It was bittersweet though. My friend's man was still deploying. He was still about to leave. He was going to miss the birth of his daughter. She was going to be alone with her baby for a while before he got home. It broke my heart to watch her suffer, yet inside I was so over joyed that I got to spend the next year with my husband.

It's incredibly hard to watch other wives suffer a pain you know all to well. To go through life's ups and downs all alone...... knowing they miss you as much as you miss them. Military wives share a very special kind of bond, and understanding that only a military wife has.