The Army is kind enough to give their soldiers a brief 2 week reprieve from 24 hour-a-day 7-days-a-week work about halfway through a deployment, often called Midtour Leave, or R&R. We have been planning all the amazingly fun summertime activities we'll do over Midtour since before Andrew even left... until he got his tentative dates for leave a few weeks ago. Unfortunately our dreams of basking in the summer sun and catching a game at Fenway Park will have to be put on hold until Summer 2012. Andrew will be getting his leave on the last possible date for his entire unit. I can't tell you the date, because of OPSEC, but I can tell you that by the time he is home again in my arms, we will know who the 2011 World Series Champions are.
A whole baseball season lies ahead of us. Actually, an entire pregnancy (NOT MINE!) is still in front of us. Someone we know just announced that she is pregnant and she is due before Andrew is due to be home. That was a tough pill to swallow, that she will have her baby in her arms before Andrew will be in mine, but I am still excited for their family.
After the initial shock of what lies ahead of us wore off, I realized this isn't all bad. Once Andrew comes home and goes back over to Afghanistan, we will have the vast majority of this deployment behind us forever. It'll be an amazing feeling to countdown from the end of leave to actual, real, beautiful homecoming in weeks instead of months!
So the summer will be tough to get through without him, but so was last summer with Ranger School, but I know it'll all be worth it when I go running into Andrew's arms in the airport one cold fall day! And as we round out day 65 (is that really all?) of deployment, I find solace in the fact that I have one of these waiting for me in a little over half a year:
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