OpLove

Starting off the week with a random post. 

As most of you know, my husband served in the US ARMY, his contract with them ends in another year and his status  will be changed to "honorably discharged veteran" Its funny to me because I think its a bigger deal that he is a soldier then he does. To him it was just a job, but to me it means SO much more then that! He willing enlisted in the middle of a war ready to fight for the things he believed in,

The 13 months that he was in Iraq were some of the scariest of my life, we weren't married yet but that doesn't make the stress or worry any less when someone you love is in the middle of a war zone and you check the news multiple times a day making sure there weren't any soldiers killed where he's at, or when you are trying to skype for a few mins and you hear a huge boom in the background and he says "gotta go that mortar was close and somethings on fire" and then you don't hear from him for a few days! There are no words that can explain the experience, nothing that can comfort you of the unknown, and nothing that can make you happier than a phone call that shows up as only 3 digits. 

  The picture below is one that I took of a couple just a few weeks before the husband left for deployment. To me it represents a lot of different things but mostly that even while he is deployed he will always be there with his family. Thinking of them, missing them, wishing he could hug the bad days away and kiss his babies to sleep at night. While a woman is pretending to be so strong so that her children never have to worry about daddy because mom said he'll be ok, while inside she is breaking down because the carpool, school, work, housework, bills and every other daily task is piling up. 

When my husband was deployed people would tell me how strong I must be and that they could never do it, it would be to much and to hard for them, but if they could have counted the number of tears I cried in that 13 months they might not think I was so strong. 

Sometimes we are stronger then we think. 

If you are a military family facing deployment or have someone coming home soon and you are interested in a free photo shoot please visit Operation Love for more information

and if you are interested in sending a letter of gratitude or encouragement to a soldier but you aren't sure where to start please visit Letters to Soldiers because not all soldiers have someone back hope rooting for them, and there are a LOT of soldiers that need a little extra support!