Preparing for Deployment

As many of you know, Jordan will be deploying this December and will be gone for 8 months. While it may seem like we still have months until then, with all his training leading up to the deployment we really only have about 10 weeks left together. When we first moved here our good friends the Matvays were just finishing up a deployment and they also had a little one. It was nice to see how Elisha and Emma functioned without Dave at home and the little things they've done to help keep daddy fresh in Emma's mind. Dave was gone from the time Emma was 6 months old to I believe 14 months. We think it will be a little easier for Brooklyn to remember who daddy is with him leaving when she is 11 months. But regardless, we want to find ways to keep him a part of her day as much as possible.

We've began to make a list of things we will do to make the time go by quickly and how we will keep daddy in our day-to-day:

- We are going to tape 8 separate videos of daddy reading stories to Brooklyn and saying a little something special to here. We will watch each video for one month and then rotate onto another one. Dave did this for Emma but was only able to record one, I think the same video for 8 months may drive mommy crazy! Elisha had a great routine that I will be stealing as well :) Daddy's story time will happen each night before bed while she's drinking her bottle. It will be her special daddy time :)

-If Jordan stays with the main body we should be able to skype somewhat often so that will also be another way to talk to daddy.

-Keep lots of pictures of daddy around the house for both Brooklyn and myself!

-Hopefully Brooklyn will take up an interest in making things for daddy, or helping me put together care packages for him.

- I plan on keeping Brooklyn and myself busy with as many activities for the girl as possible, swimming, kindermusic, playdates. Anything that will fill our time.

- We plan on going home to Oregon for this deployment. There is nothing in Mississippi keeping us here so it really just makes more sense to be near friends and family.

- I hope to focus on my photography, building my own business should keep me busy!

Don't really know who all reads this, but if any of you out there have any suggestions for me to add to my list I'd love to hear them! Your husband/wife may not deploy, but maybe they work away from home a lot and you may have a secret list up your sleeve to share as well.

We sure are going to miss daddy, but this is something we signed up for, so rather than feeling bad for myself I'm going to pick myself up and make the best of it. I know it's only a short time in our life together and it will be another story to tell when we're old and grey :)