Welcome to the Crazy Life: Surviving Deployment 2012

Well, yesterday was the big day. Jake and the guys left for Afghanistan for a year. It was an extremely emotional day, but we survived, just like we will survive the next 365 days. We had a little miscommunication with Wyatt. We told him he could go to formation with daddy. He thought that meant he got to go with Daddy on the plane. When we finally explained to him that we were just dropping him off, Wyatt was in full meltdown mode. I was expecting a long day of meltdowns for him, but to my surprise he did pretty well after that!

Cheyenne on the other hand has been having a tough time. She cried for her daddy as soon as we got to the car. Then that night. Then all the next day. We drove past a car dealership yesterday with a ton of balloons and I hear her in the back seat, "mom! Look at the balloons! They will fly up in the sky and bring back my daddy from Afghanistan!" When we got home from dropping Wyatt off at school yesterday our 2nd car was sitting in the driveway and she got all excited thinking daddy was home. It's so hard to keep explaining to her that daddy is going to be gone for a long time. She'll adjust, but it's been hard to watch her try to work through it.

Holt has been the easiest out of the kids, he's only 11 months after all! It does make me sad to hear him say "dada" all the time! we have Mama-Dada fights all the time, he thinks its hilarious to say Dada instead of Mama!

So long story short, it's definitely going to be an adjustment for all of us, but we are tough and can adapt. Thousands of families have gone through the exact same thing we are or worse! We are so grateful that we get Jake back after a year. Some families don't get their daddies back at all.

I love you Jacob Ryan Crist! God Bless TF ODIN