Not Goodbye, See you later!

When you meet your best friend the thought never crosses your mind that you have to say goodbye, that however is exactly what I was faced with as my first deployment was coming to an end. I was forced to say goodbye to not only my best friend but my sister, my second mom and dad, my aunt Tina, my whole other family. This small group of people had been my safe haven in a scary new place. They had seen me through my pregnancy and homesickness and had made my first experience as a Coast Guard wife amazing, now you were asking to leave that? No! That wasn't ok. 

The movers had come, the apartment was empty, the van was packed with trailer in tow and I was sitting in Leah's parents driveway and I couldn't bring myself to get out of the car. All I could think was " I can't do this" " This isn't fair!"  When I finally made my way out of the car my little Deacon bean ran into my arms and I lost it! That was the last time I was going to get feel those little arms around my neck for a long time. Leah looked at me and gave me the "Stop it!" face and I somehow managed to get it together for a few minutes anyway. After letting Leah and her mom and dad get last minutes lovin in on my new little girl the time had come for Leah and I to say goodbye. We handed each other cards because we are corney like that and read our day's emotions written out on a Hallmark card. We barely closed the cards before we finally let each let go of our emotions and wrapped up each other in the tightest hugs ever.  

 

As I hugged my sister all I kept thinking was " this isn't fair" " I'm not ready for this" but like it or not I knew this was the life of  the Military and I had better get  used to it, but I still didn't like it. When we finally let go and walked hand in hand we promised each other we wouldn't let this  friendship fail. We would always be family and this wasn't goodbye, this was simply see you later.