You Know Your Husband is Deployed When…

Have you ever wondered how life might change when your spouse is deployed? If you did, then this list of small observances during “deployment home life” might give you an idea.

You know, your husband is deployed when…

…….your kids are randomly calling strangers in military uniform “Dad”

…….you arrange your day around the time he might possibly call you on Skype

…….it gets harder and harder to listen to civilian spouses talk about how terrible it is that their husband is on business travel for a week, and not start yelling.

…….you drive yourself to the hospital for surgery and don’t really know how to get home because you haven’t been at your duty station long enough.

…….you have to sell, move, and buy/rent a new home yourself with kids and pets in tow.

……you don’t sleep in your own bed for 12 months with the exception of the midtour vacation. ……shaving your legs becomes optional.

…….when you have a list of songs specifically to pull you out of a funk.

…….the toilet seat is always down.

……when you start crying at a drop of a hat.

……when you wonder, just what forces are at work that 5 things at once break down. (Sometimes called the “Deployment Gremlins”)

……when 2 months before he is due to return you have NOTHING else on your mind but the day he finally arrives. (My brain actually turned to mush and I was glad to see that the same thing also happened to my neighbor)

…….you become intimately familiar with several time zones. ……you pick up EVERY phone call – even if caller ID indicates that it could be a phone solicitation – it COULD be him (well, it was him before, so no chances are taken)

……fixing the toilet is really no big deal anymore.

……you look at your calendar only to see how many days are left until he comes home.

Looking at my notes, I chuckle at some of those situations, even though, at the time it wasn’t funny at all. I knew that the right thing for me to do was to be strong and plow through. Like many of my fellow military spouses did.

God Bless Them.

God Bless Our Troops.

Meet the Haynies:

We are the Haynie family. I am Susanna, 44-year-old foreign born mom of 3 wonderful kids. Alexander, our 12-year-old firecracker, attends Elementary School and recently started serving with the Civil Air Patrol here in Colorado. Anna is 14 and has Down Syndrome, and is our Special Olympics Ski Gold Winner in the State of Colorado. She is our tough cookie – and always as smile on her face. Tyler, at 16 and the oldest, is our creative, impressing us with his always new designs, creations and developments. Tim, dad and the cause of all ‘our’ drama, is a space officer and has been in the Army for almost 21 years.

Our family has endured ‘only’ 3 deployments. Some were harder on us than others. As I look back at those times I remember the pain that was involved, not just in regards to our family but also with friends’ families. I almost wanted to write something like “the good and the bad” - but honestly, there really is NO good that comes out of a yearlong deployment. Your life is on hold, period. At times you even hold your breath. When I look deep inside of me, I find this eternal gratefulness that our family has not broken up due to the military deployments and relocations.

** “Coming Home” premieres March 6 at 10 pm/9c on Lifetime. The powerful all-new reality series features U.S. soldiers’ surprise family reunions after serving long tours of duty on behalf of the country, pays tribute to American armed forces personnel and their families.