The dreaded day has already come and gone. Ever since I found out that I would be assigned as a batallion chaplain to Fort Riley I knew that I would be deploying and had an idea within a week or so regarding when that day would come. We (the fam and I) took advantage of as many opportunities as we could to spend time together and make good memories leading up to the day of deployment. I ate lunch with the family as much as possible, worked my hardest at work and came home as early as possible, played soccer, went to hundreds of balls at Cinderella’s castle, took Kim out on some hot dates and a lot of family walks combined with trips to the playground.

Kim and I talked about the day a lot, too. We talked about what things we should expect like how often we will be able to talk/communicate and what modes of communication we would have; we talked about what things we feared and were nervous about regarding the deployment; we talked about how we planned to stay strong in our relationship with God and we talked about how we could make this year apart one of the best years of our lives.

So far our hard work has been paying off. We are still early in the deployment but Kim and I each feel as though we have been growing closer to each other, even though we are far apart. Theologically, we have to believe that the best years of our lives are not the ones behind us or the ones to come but its the one we are living in right now.

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