Remember being in middle school, and when your mom or dad told you it was time to get off the phone with your boyfriend the whole, "Noooo, you say bye first" conversation commenced? Remember how good it felt to know that the person on the other end didn't want to hang up? I remember. I remember how juvenile and carefree it felt to talk for hours on end, with not a care in the world. You're not worrying about bills, or school, or putting gas in the car. Your only concern is squeezing every last breath out of that conversation. And then one day you grow up, and conversations start to end with, "OK, I have to go" and "I don't have time to talk right now."
Time. Don't we all wish we had a little more time? To everyone that ever says, "I don't have time to be talking right now," I want you to read these next words very carefully.
I am a proud wife and mother. My daughter is 3 months old and my husband is on the other side of the world defending every hour, minute and second of your life. He's giving up everything he has so that you can have some more time. When he calls me, I pray that just for one day, time will disappear. I cringe at the clock, it's been 15 minutes, only 5 minutes left. We try to start our goodbyes but fail miserably at it. It takes us 5 minutes just to gather up the courage to say it. The "B" word. Bye. What I would give to have just 10 more minutes of talk time. What I would give just to see my husband. Before he got into port this past week, I had not seen him for over a month. Now tell me you don't have time to talk.
Just take the time out of your day to call the ones you love, the ones that slip your mind, the ones you don't have time for. Because you never know when life is going to interfere and take that time away. I'm not just talking about death, or even a deployment. Anything can happen. I know that now. In the blink of an eye, your whole life can be ripped apart. Sometimes temporary, sometimes forever.
Now when I talk to my husband, I get that giddy middle school feeling back. It's amazing, let me tell ya. I will treasure these short conversations forever, and most of all, I won't forget the 5 minute goodbyes.
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WOW! I have to say, those are some extremely strong words you're using there in the second paragraph. Telling people your husband fights for every second of their freedom isn't going to make the time go by any faster - especially when other people who read your blog are going through the exact same thing. Instead, maybe reach out to others in your situation as well. You'll find that a lot of us seasoned vet SO's aren't ones to make others feel bad about what our guys are doing out there.... Just being honest.
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