10 days out...

On October 4, 2011, I got a call from Matt on his way home from work. I noticed his somber tone and he said, "I have some news, Im going on the deployment and I leave in January." Little did I know how fast the time was going to fly by! Here we are 10 days out from this deployment beginning and I find myself stumped at the thought of how quickly life has moved right by! I guess its really true what they say...Time flys by when you're having fun! I am so ready to get this whole deployment underway and get the countdown clock going!! I want to see the numbers of days and hours decrease everyday instead of seeing them stand still. Im ready for him to get over there and do his thing, help soldiers and serve his country proudly and then come home safe and sound. There wouldnt be a greater gift, than a husband going to war, to come back without injury or scars, (physically or mentally), and for us all to be a family again. I will be longing for that day everyday he is away and I know our girls will be longing and wishing for the same thing, for daddy to come home to us. I just hope and pray that I will hold it together for the time he is away for my girls. I need to be their rock and statue of a mother. I am going to be carrying the weight of a mother and father on my shoulders, and as much as Matt is involved in their lives and is such an active father and helps me all the time, I know that I will be struggling with the role of both of us. I am very blessed to have him as a husband and as the father of my kids because he helps me out so much with them. I know I'll be missing that big time!! But life goes on and I'm sure we will get into our routines and hold onto each other and get through this together. Its really amazing at times like this, times when you know who you can count on and who you cant, where family and your closest and best friends are there for you day and night. Now, Im a busy mom and wife and dont have too many friends, but I do know the ones I have are sending me their love and prayers and lending their ears for the insane amount of crying and complaining and "I just need to talk to a friend" moods Im going to be experiencing and I cant thank you all enough for all of your support and friendship and love throughout this! It means the world to me and my family and the truth that I couldnt go through this without each one of you being by my side. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I know that if you havent had an experience yet, something that has been where I have been there for you for as long as you needed me, you will go through one, and I give my word that I will be a rock to you to help you and support you as you have done for me.
If everyone out there can please send your wishes of good luck and please send your prayers our way as Matt begins this. We are grateful to you. Thank you.

A little family getaway!

As we are preparing for Matt to leave here in about 12 days, we decided to do a little spontaneous trip. We decided to head out this Friday for the weekend and head to Orlando, our favorite place to go, Disney! The girls we knew would be so excited! We have chose to keep this little trip a secret from Finley so that she would be so surprised. We love seeing her face light up when we talk about trips to Disney. She truly believes that place is the most magical place in the world and its so sweet. On Sunday, we bought our tickets and Matt decided it was a good time to tell Fin so that she would have something really fun and exciting to look forward too and have a little countdown for the week. When we told her, she was just over the moon and couldnt be more surprised! She was totally excited and jumped up and down, screaming and yelling, in a good way! Then we broke the news that Nana was going to go with us too!! That really lit up her world! We are still waiting to hear if Papa can go or if he cant. Finley is really hoping for the go!! lol.
I am feeling like a kid in candy store too with this little weekend trip. I love doing spontaneous things like this, especially now that we are losing Daddy soon for a while. It helps make the memories and times better and stronger. We are just going to forget everything and leave it in South Carolina and just bring ourselves, smiles, and energy to Disney. I just cant wait to relax and have fun and feel there is not a care in the world, a feeling I long for, since I'll be a nervous wreck the next 9 months. I know Matt feels the same way and I'm sure his feelings are a little more intense than mine. So, lets get this weekend underway! I want us to enjoy ourselves no matter what and live life together! I'm sure that the girls feel the same way, although they probably cant describe it like that. So Disney, here come the DeHaven's!!!!

19 days and counting...

For those out there that I dont speak to on a regular basis, dont know that we are going to be going through a military family's worst nightmare soon. My husband found out back in October that he is deploying to Afghanistan. I couldnt tell you what I felt when I heard the news. We had discussed it before, somewhat in depth, that he may deploy someday. Well, that "someday" came quick. There wasn't enough words to comfort me at the time. I never had imagined a life like this, I never thought I'd go through this. Although, being active duty, its always an option for these guys to be "voluntold", they tell you to go and you really do have a choice but they "ask" you anyway, to serve their country overseas. I had come to terms with that, I thought, but its still a working progress. Anyway, he has to go through deployment training workups and will be leaving us Jan 22. I'm not looking forward to that day at all. Although, Im trying to keep a positive outlook on things, but to be honest, its extremely hard. We just reunited back together as a family in March, so it really hasnt even been a year yet. He will be going back and forth between the east and west coast and will fly overseas sometime in late february or early March. I know howe much this is going to be difficult and I really dont think I know how to handle this. I feel for my girls, especially with Finley knowing whats going on and she understands it all. Charli is just the biggest "daddy's girl" and I know she will be heartbroken when she figures out that daddy isnt here all the time. It just saddens my heart. I know that I'm going to have to be a rock and be the strongest I can be, but how long can I keep up with that? I know I have a breaking point too and I just hope I can push through everyday knowing that at one point he will come home and we will be a family under one roof again!
Being overseas is going to be hard for Matt too. Probably harder on him than us. But his stepdad gave him an ipad for christmas so that we can Skype as much as we can when he is over there. Also, a lady in Michigan, donated a laptop to me and the girls with a webcam so that we can use this in the home to skype with him back. We didnt have a computer and we were saving our money to buy one, but thankfully these gracious people took care of that for us and from the bottoms of hearts we thank you! You are and will be the reason my husband and my girls and I will be able to see each other a couple times a week!! So thank you!!
So, please send prayers to our family as we go into this difficult and nercvous time here in our lives. We would greatly appreciate it. I pray that we get through this hands down and he comes home safely and healthy! We love you Matt so much and we will be right here waiting for you when you come home, but home wont be home without you, so please just do your job over there and stay safe and hurry home! January to Ocotber/November is going to be very empty without you, but thankfully we can use our computers and see each other as often as we can! All of our love and prayers and warm hugs are being sent to you everyday! Love all of your girls.

New Year, New Resolution!

Happy new year to everyone! While I'm at it, Happy Holidays as well! I am the busiest, biggest slacker on this blog! I can't believe that May was the last time I posted a blog on here. So my new year, new resolution is to stick with it!!! Let's see if I can do that! I sure hope everyone out there enjoyed the holidays with their friends and family. From the beginning of November, we have been nonstop with traveling, holiday company, friends visiting, etc. It's been wonderful! We took a family trip to Disney the first week of November and just had the time of our lives there with the girls! Nothing beats seeing so much happiness and smiles on their faces. It lights up my world. A week later we had Matt's stepdad, Pop Pop, as the girls call him, visit for almost a week. What a great time we had! So much fun and so good to see him! Quickly after that, we had Adam, a great friend from Matt's bot camp and corpsman school, come out to visit for Thanksgiving and stay for a long weekend. He is such a great friend and the girls just love him! We sure hope he visits soon! Not too long after he went back to Texas, we had Matt's cousins, Jen and McKane and their son, Kyan, visit from virginia. We just love spending time with them! Such great people! Kyan and the girls had a lot of fun playing and getting to know each other. I couldn't believe at this point we had had so many visitors and the company could have kept coming because we love having friends and family visit. It helps the time go by and we love spending all that time with people we truly care about. Such an amazing way to spend the holiday season! My parents were next on the list, and they flew into Charleston and we picked them up and spent the day there. Old town Charleston is so beautiful and unique. We had the greatest Christmas with them and the girls. Of course, the girls were truly spoiled rotten by Santa, us and my parents!! They got so much stuff! I swear Im going to have to get rid of everything they have to make room for all the new! The only thing that stunk was the fact that we were all under the weather the whole time they were here and we infected them :( I swear the germs here are awful. The allergies dont help and neither does preschool! Im praying we are all on the mend at this point!! But besides the fact that we were sick, we had an amazingly wonderful holiday season and are sad to see it end! But 2012 will be an interesting year and I hope everything that happens is great and for the best of everyone! Happy new year to all and make it a prosperous one!