Life during deployment.

So I realize that it as been awhile since I have "blogged".  Life around the Apel home has not been the same since Josh deployed, and lets face it I have never really been good at keeping up with this anyways.  I have, however, been doing quite a bit of journaling.  This being the first deployment that Josh and I have encounter since meeting five years ago, it has been a very difficult experience for me. It has come with a wide range of emotions, most of which I keep to myself.  Hints where the journal comes in!  I was inspired to write today after coming across a quote on my friend and fellow army wife's Facebook page. 

 "Distance is to love as wind to a flame, it increases the strong and diminishes the weak."

This simple quote made me start to reflect on the love that my husband and I share.  After meeting in a semi-unconviental way, our relationship grew very quickly.  I knew with in a few months that Josh was the man that I was meant to spend the rest of my life with, and we were married a little over a year after we started dating.  Josh and I were perfect for each other in many different ways, but our lives together have not been all sunshine and rainbows.  Marriages take work, but we have always come through any obstacle life has thrown our way stronger then we were before.

Before this deployment I would have thought there was no way possible for us to be any stronger, or any more in love.  The distance has proven me wrong.  Even though we are worlds a part (literally),  our hearts have never been closer.  Sounds corny, right?  Well it is true.  It is hard to explain, but I guess the old saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" is true.  Through the ups and downs of this deployment I can honestly say that this experience has, and will continue too, strengthen our relationship and reconfirm our commitment to one another.

So to sum this up whole thing up, deployments are lame.  I miss my husband, and there are no words to express how deeply his absence is felt in our family.  We will, however, continue on.  Knowing that once this is over, we will be stronger.  At the end of the day, no matter how hard or long it has been, I am proud to be the wife of a true American hero.  There is no other man for me, and no other life I would rather live.