Day 0

We just took Thak to the airport. He is on his way to Maryland now, to start his new job as a civilian contractor.

On the way there, he did what Thak always does when he's leaving for a long time, and told me what he expected of me, and what he wants to do when he comes back. It's always really obvious simple things. This time, he told me to continue going to play group, and La Leche League, and belly dancing, and to help a friend of ours who is going through some hard times. He also told me that he wants me to get all the meat together for our Christmas barbecue BEFORE he gets home, since he'll be flying in on Christmas Eve. He told the kids to be good, told Erin to help me with things, and set a good example for her brothers, and Orren and Chai to be good boys.

When we got to the airport, there wasn't much time, and Orren was having a hard time saying goodbye to daddy, so Thak put his Buddha amulet on Orren, and told him to be strong, and that he would be home for his birthday. Orren made it halfway to the car before he completely lost it, and wanted to see daddy again. This is the first time Thak has left Orren for anything longer than a drill weekend, and he's only left for drill once. Other than that, the only times he's been gone from Orren were 24 hours or less, like when he would have to pull staff duty in the Army, or when he flew to Utah for an interview with this same company. Orren had a hard time today, but I think tomorrow, when we don't go to the airport to pick daddy up and bring him home, it will be even harder for him. He is such a daddy's boy.

This will also be my first time left alone with three kids for any extended period of time. The entire reason Thak got out of the Army was to avoid this situation, but it is what it is. Thak is a civilian contractor now, and he has gone to get back the life that we lost when he got out of the Army. Three more weeks, and we'll be well on our way to being totally ok again. It cannot come soon enough.

We still know nothing about what is going to happen after he gets done with his training. We know that his training is probably about four months, and that he will be home for Christmas. We also are pretty sure that he will have to go to a post somewhere for a few weeks in the course of that to help with a UAV reset. With the units coming back to Ft. Bliss soon, and the timing of that, the odds are decent that he may be here for that, which would be a few weeks. AAI is so family friendly, if there is any possible way he will be able to do the reset training here at Bliss, they will make it happen. Again, we won't know anything about that for a while, so we're just going to cross that bridge when we come to it, and not think about it too much until it's time. We also do not know what post we will go to, if any, or if he will deploy immediately when he finishes his training. They will try to place him at Ft. Stewart since that is his first choice, and if Stewart is impossible, they will try to give him Ft. Bragg (his second choice). If neither of those is possible, we just found out there are two openings at Ft. Drum, so we've got about a 25% chance of going to upstate New York. I really do not want to move to Ft. Drum. There is nothing for me there. If that's what they give us, though, we'll take it now and transfer later. Again, this is a bridge to cross when we come to it, and we're definitely not there yet.

So on Day 0, here's Orren with daddy's Buddha amulet on. This is the amulet that protected Thak during his 3rd tour in Iraq, so it's pretty great, and will help Orren.