Beginning a New Journey

Well, the time has come for Ben to Deploy to Afghanistan for 6 months. This new Journey is going to be a hard, yet rewarding (that's what I keep telling myself) experience for us all. We have been through 14 years of school and training to get to this point in our lives. We have been through many hard and trying things as a family. We have moved 6 times in the past 15 years and have had 5 children whom are all miracles in our lives. But, being apart and in these circumstances will be the hardest thing we have faced yet. The anticipation of Ben leaving was rough. There was more tension as usual in our home, the kids were on edge and Carter worried that he would never see Ben again. Carter would ask repeatedly, "can you promise me 100% that dad will come back safe?" The reality is, is that I couldn't honestly answer that with the response he wanted. So for now, we just have to have faith and hope that he will come home to us safely and that we will be able to make this a good experience for all. We are so proud of Ben and know that he will be an instrument in helping the Afghan people and our own U.S soldiers heal from horrible injuries. He will be missed tremendously.