MAKING SACRIFICES

Let me start off by saying I woke up with an urge to punch someone (anyone, not a specific person)in the face today. This blog will most likely by angry rantings, but as it is MY blog I am taking this time to give my OPINIONS on things. This is not an opinions column, and if you disagree with whatever it is I am ranting about, feel free NOT to comment. This is also fair warning to not read this weeks edition of The Manic Military Wife. Thank you.

Yesterday, someone said to my husband " sometimes you have to make sacrifices." Just typing it sends me into a rage. I am a fucking Army Wife( there goes my adsense approval). Don't even talk to me about sacrifices. I could fill a lake with the sacrifices this family has made in the last 6 1/2 years. Back to back deployments, having to FIGHT to get one year stabilization, being counseled on said stabilization, rumors of marriage troubles because my husband requested, simply, to be home for 365 days in a row, as promised by his battalion AND the CIC. Was he trying to get out of a deployment? Nope. Just wanted his 365, or a week and a half after deployment date. Derek had to SACRIFICE a family camping trip to go home for the death of his grandfather, feeling the need so desperately because he's missed three already. We have SACRIFICED birthdays, holidays , firsts, lasts, sex, money, moves, wants, needs, sleep, time (we will never get back), bedtime stories, kisses awards, plays, conferences. The only time I've seen Derek get an award or promotion was when I pinned his 2LT bar on him at OCS. He is now a CPT. With a chest full of accolades. We have a daughter who was just a few months old the first time Derek deployed, and is now 7. He has been to 3 of her birthday parties. We sacrificed 18 months, then 3.5 months, then 15 months, then 12 months of our life with only ONE full 365 days at home EVER thrown in there. Don't fucking talk to ME about sacrifice.

This isn't me wining about my husbands job. We read the fine print, we knew about the war going on. We knew about deployments. We new we would be making SACRIFICES. This is more about how OTHERS perceive said sacrifices in relation to themselves.

We are PCS-ing (moving) at the end of this summer. Derek is tasked to do a training exercise on a different continent this summer. A 6 week exercise smack dab in the middle of when we need to be packing up, and clearing out. For my non-mil readers -6 weeks may seem like time o'plenty.HA! PCS-ing is an involved process that includes making appointments well in advance to have your household goods packed and shipped to an address your not even sure of yet. And paperwork paperwork paperwork for out processing. 5 days worth just for him. I have to make sure medical records are all accounted for in the electronic system,all shots are up to date and in our possession and NOT PACKED, find housing in a different state, hope you get on the housing list before arrival, and that housing is available when you get there, book accommodations for your last 5 days in this state and your first 5 in the next.PLAN and Pack for a road trip across the country, with at least two kids and a dog. Don't even get me started on the older kid and what she'll need. All this and a hundred other things have to be taken care of. And it looks like it will have to be done by ME. Which sucks because you can't take a shit in the Army when your soldier is gone without a SPECIFIC POWER OF ATTORNEY.

Question: why would you send a person who is essentially down to less than 90 days at BN on a training exercise for the BN?!?!
Also - why did you keep his name on the roster when you KNEW three months ago his orders were coming?

So this summer, instead of easing our kids into a transition (they will make TWO next school year), we will be pressed on even making it to school before it starts. No time to make friends in the neighborhood, or get unpacked, or to even miss where you left, really. They will most likely be living in a hotel when they start school and we can only hope that the school they start in will be the one they stay in.
*Also, if you're a relative and reading this - don't make any plans for us. We'll basically be driving in,sleeping and leaving again. Sorry.

It will be fine, because we're a military family and we've dealt with this kind of crap before. You put your big girl panties on and you get shit done. We know about sacrifice.

But what I really want to say to that motherfucker who made that statement to my husband is:
If we sometimes have to make sacrifices, why don't YOU make the sacrifice? Why don't you take one for the team so that my kids don't have to? Just this time. Because this isn't really Derek who is making the sacrifice, it's his kids. And you are a total buttfuck for even making a comment like that in the first place.