My goal in starting this blog is to explore the depths of my experience as a husband and dad that has a wife going to war. It is not as one might expect, where I am sitting around complaining or contemplating how I will survive and take care of my two boys in her absense. Nor am I going to bad mouth our government's endeavors in an unpopular war. Rather it is my intention to cast light onto a not highly discussed topic.
Eveyone thinks of the husbands and fathers that march off to fight. But what about the wives and moms? It somehow becomes something much more tragic when a woman says bye to her babies and she is put in harms way. The looks that I get from people after I explain to them that my wife is being deployed range from surprise, to confusion, to downright disbelief. "Well what about your baby?" (referring to our 15 month old boy) "Who will take care of him?" It's as if it is an impossible notion that I would have any part in that job. Forget that he has been in daycare all along and that my wife went back to work after 6 weeks of maternity leavc. The strange looks that I get continue when I tell people that I am not also in the Army. Many people seem to jump to the conclusion that I am some sort of failure or free loader. After all, what real man would let his wife be in the Army and not join also? I don't feel much of a need to quiet my critics, but for those who care to know, I teach at a private Christian school. I teach English for 7th-9th grade.
But enough about me for the moment. My wife Joy leaves this week on a journey unlike any she has gone on before. She will be half a world away in Iraq. Our older son is in 4th grade and can articulate his emotions and fears of his mom going to a place he can only point to on a map and recall a few stories he picked up from being in the car with me listening to NPR. Our fifteen month old can't tell us how he feels. He is in a stage right now where he clings to his momma for dear life so I worry a little about what later this week holds in store.
I hope that I have piqued your interest. I will do my best to keep my mission strong. I hope you enjoy, "When Your Wife Goes to War"
