Operation Rainbow Kitten

This post has been written and deleted about 15 times.

I am very rarely at a loss for words.  But I am.  And I have been for 3 weeks.

Because even though I sorta expected it...I was totally blindsided when it happened.  'Cause, the thing was, I wasn't ready.  I'm still not.

If the Army can't get ahold of Adam on the phone, sometimes they will call me to hunt him down or to relay a message.  No biggie.

So when they called on a Friday, I really didn't think anything of it.  And then they said that they were calling because they "finally got mobilization orders."  And then the room started to spin. 

I try really hard to represent Adam in a way that is becoming to his profession.  But it's hard to be professional and all business and remember the message that needs to be passed on...when you feel like you are going to throw up.  And like you can't breathe. 

I wish my husband had been able to tell me about the mobilization orders.  He would ease me into it.  He would wait until I was sitting down. 

Mobilization orders = deployment

So here's the run down, as we know it. 

Starting sometime in July (I love how vague the Army is), Adam will have 3 months of training.  His training will be relatively close to home, though I won't be able to see him for 3 months.  I've told him that I might just go drive around where they're training and hope to get a glimpse of his cute face.  Maybe I'm joking.  Maybe I'm not.  You never can tell.

After that, he will maybe come home for a week or so.  (Again, love the ambiguity of the Army with words like "maybe" and "or so.")  Then he'll go to Afghanistan for 9 months.  Fun.

So, here's the hardest part of all of this--nobody knows what to say.  I think the best respone I got was a from a client.  The conversation went like this:

Me:  So Adam is getting deployed.
Client:  Shit.

Yup, that's it.  That's about all you can say.  Shit.