Passing Trains

So Cool
Originally uploaded by JessicAnthony.

About a year ago, I can vividly remember, sitting at a friend's house watching the trains leave Ft. Campbell loaded with all the equipment the soldiers were going to need on their upcoming deployment. As we watched them pass it made us extremely sad and nervous at the thought of having to spend an entire year without our spouses. There's a certain trepidation about it that is hard to explain but understood by those who have gone through it.

We were thrust into single parenting and a year filled with 30 minute phone calls here and there. My closet has been stocked with flat rate boxes in order to send plenty of packages and my budget was adjusted in order to account for money spent on phone cards. There's a year of re-programming yourself to cook smaller meals, because your monster eating man isn't there to devour all the food. After awhile it's no longer out of the ordinary to take the trash out and mow the yard.

Then you look out the window and see the trains going the other direction, loaded with all the equipment the soldiers no longer need because they're on their way home. And that feeling is much like the first, hard to put into words. My husband is coming home soon.