Saying goodbye...

After being married only 18 days, I had to say goodbye to John on June 17, 2004 and send him off to Iraq for a year. The days following our wedding were very busy! We stayed in Huntsville together for another several days before loading up and driving back out to John's apartment in Junction City, Kansas. That little apartment was technically our first home together. There were 3 pieces of furniture in the entire apartment. John had a "hand-me-down" couch that I was allergic to. We had to put sheets over it to keep me from getting an itchy rash. The previous owner probably had a dog. The other pieces of furniture included a $27 desk John was very proud of and a plastic, garage-type chest of drawers. His bed was an air mattress and his coffee table, end tables, and TV stand were all those blue plastic Rubbermaid storage bins. Of course this wasn't my idea of what it would be like to finally be a wife and get to "play house" for real!!! But, we adjusted and I knew it was only temporary.

In Kansas, John was very busy every day with work. They would work from early in the morning until late in the evening making all the final preparations for the deployment. The day before he left, John got promoted to 1st LT and I was able to come and pin on his new rank. If my memory serves me correctly, we drove through the Burger King that was connected to the gas station the night before he left.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and got ready, almost in silence because what can you really talk about when you know what is coming next. John stopped off at the ATM to get some cash and we drove on post. We parked in the parking lot and unloaded his equipment from the car and brought it over to be loaded on the trucks. And then John walked me back over to the car and we hugged and talked for a minute or two before saying goodbye to each other. It was such an awkward feeling to get in my car and watch him walk away from me. It was even weirder to have to drive away knowing that John was still there. I cried for a bit, but tried to hold it together. I then picked up my cell phone and called Lynsey and we talked the rest of the way home, which was great for getting my mind off of things.

Life must go on. You can only cry for so long... The first few days are the hardest, but you eventually adjust and get used to the new "routine." Of course you think about it everyday, but you don't cry as much as time goes by. Besides, December would be here before I knew it and John would be coming home for his 2 weeks of leave.