I'm Grateful

With Thanksgiving only a week away, I have been thinking a lot about being thankful.  Ask me last night and I was not thankful for a lot...in fact, my female brain was working in overdrive with fear, anger, frustration.  I hadn't heard from Ben since he left on Saturday.  I know they touched down in Afghanistan on Monday at some point but I had yet to hear from him by the time I went to bed.  However, I knew they were "in country" since these young wives kept posting on Facebook that they kept talking to their husbands.  I was happy for them, truly.  And since I talked to Ben via FaceTime this morning, I started thinking about these young wives and being grateful I am not one of them.

Ben and I have had a relationship for 10 years of this war.  When he was first deploying, we had handwritten letters.  Facebook wasn't around yet, no such thing as Skype or FaceTime.  There was AOL instant messaging but Ben had no access to the internet.  If we got a phone call, Ben had to wait in line for 40 minutes to an hour to use a satellite phone that may or not have a decent connection and even then, your phone usage time was limited to 10 minutes or less.

Since those first deployments, communication started to improve.  Some emails, phone calls every 5-7 days apart, but still mostly handwritten letters.  I am thankful for handwritten letters.  I have binder after binder of written letters through 10 years and 9 deployments.

Most of these new wives live and breath by Facebook.  Their husbands are posting messages and taking pictures of themselves from overseas.  They need to talk to their husbands more frequently and because of the instantaneous access, I think it is more detrimental to them.  Here is what happens and why these Soldiers are setting their wives up for failure:  Soldier calls (whether it be video calling or iMessaging, or whatever) everyday.  Wife expects communication every day and when a day or two goes by with nothing, she starts to freak out.

But, I am grateful.  Because of the advances in modern technology, not only could I talk to Ben but I could also see his face.  Connor got to show Daddy the Lego ship he made last night.  I am grateful.