Relief

The phone has caused me much angst over the past few days but it has also caused me great joy. As a military wife, when my husband deploys I become one with the phone. I never leave without my cell phone, it's always charged or has the capability to be charged.

Last night as I was still waiting to hear from my husband I slept with both house phones and my cell phone. Just in case one of the house phones died I wanted to have a backup. My cell phone was fully charged and turned as loud as it would go. I quickly learned that if I am trying to sleep I would need to turn off all notifications except the one for phone calls. Waking to the WordFeud ring tone at 3 am was not fun.


I did sleep okay last night. I would wake off and on throughout the night, check the phones to make sure that I hadn't missed a call and then head back to sleep. This morning I sat quietly in the living room, read my devotional, checked email and FB(just in case I have a message from my husband). I found no messages or email and my heart sank again. I had decided at that moment that I would call my contact at the unit and ask him to get a message to my husband to call when he can. Because it was early I decided I would wait until lunch time to contact the unit. It is Sunday and many families head to church or sleep in from a long night out and I didn't want to wake anyone. I also didn't want to be labeled the needy wife. My military sisters know exactly what I'm talking about.

I did send my husband an email this morning asking him to call me if at all possible. It had been 68+ hours since I last talked to him and given the circumstances that was about 60 to many.  It wasn't long after I sent that email that I found my husband online and able to instant message for a little bit. He told me he was waiting for the phones to come up and then he would call me. A little while into instant message the phone rang and on the other end was my husband's voice. I could breathe again.

He sounded so much better than the last time we talked and I could tell he was getting better because he complained about having to sit around and do nothing. He will be doing much of that over the next 6-8 weeks but it sounded just like my husband. He gave me more details of what happened, what he hurt, what the treatment might look like and I felt like I could truly relax a little.

The phone made its way through the house and all the kids talked to their dad. They didn't have to much to say which surprised us both. I hung up with my husband feeling like I knew the information I needed, I felt like he was okay and soon he would be on his way home. I called my battle buddy after I said good-bye to my husband and found I would be faced with more questions I didn't have answers to. This time it was "Will he have to go back on this deployment?" Great question, I had never thought of it and now I will have to wait to know the answer. At this point it's best to be prepared for the worst (delayed planes getting home, a possible trip back on this deployment, and lots of complaining because my husband has to be still for 5 minutes) and hope for the best.

Today I spell relief  P H O N E C A L L.