Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Goodbyes hurt so much


Today is a day that I have been dreading for a little over a month now. Today is the day that my son left to return to the military, only this time it's different. This time, he won't be back in a couple weeks. This time, he is going to not only be gone for over 3 months but he will be gone to the Army for that time. The Navy has a program called Individual Augmentee, "IA" for short. He was put into this program as a non-volunteer. This weekend he will fly to California, to a Navy base, where they will start the process to transfer him into this program. From there, he will fly to South Carolina and Fort Jackson for about 3 weeks to begin training with the Army. After that, he will continue on to Oklahoma and Fort Bragg. He will stay there until Christmas. I am thankful that he will be with us for Christmas - that is the only holiday we haven't missed with him since he's been in the military. I missed his 18th birthday, his 19th, and next week, I'll miss his 20th birthday with him - we have yet to have a Thanksgiving with him since he went in but we haven't missed celebrating our Lord and Savior's birth with him yet - Thanks be to God!! He will only get to be here with us until about the 28th of December and then back to Fort Bragg where he will then be sent to Iraq for one year. When he went in the Navy, I was okay with it - I told everyone that if he had joined the Army or Marines, I wouldn't but since boats don't float on sand, I was okay. Now they have sand sailors - and I am not thrilled with the idea of my baby over there operating some gun that shoots thousands of rounds per minute. In my mind, he's not ready for that and who knows him better than his mom, right??

I do know that God is watching out for him - thanks to facebook, I have reconnected with an old friend from school days. He was in the Navy and is working for them as a civilian now. The odds of him being at the base in CA where Matt is going are minimal but he is at the very base that he starts out at next week. I introduced them through facebook and he is going to pick Matt up and get him where he needs to go - that is one weight off my mind - at least he won't be alone out there - total God thing for me!! I am going to miss him terribly but thanks to modern technology, we will be able to stay in contact with him pretty regularly, I hope!!

A little while after Matt left tonight, the deer must've known they were safe, 2 doe and a fawn were outside our back door eating grass like there was no tomorrow - they know the hunter has left the building - we do too and we have empty hearts tonight :(

1 comment:

  1. Nothing means more to me than a simple text from my boy telling me "I love you" - he is safely on the ground in VA - miss him so much already....

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