And so time moves on

For a long time I was pretty comfortable in the fact that the Army wasn't completely foreign to me, that I had some clue as to how things work and didn't have quite as many open questions as some parents who's kids surprise them with the fact that they are becoming a Soldier. But let me tell you something, being an Army wife 18 years ago and being an Army mom now are two totally different stories. You set your cell phone to a certain ringer so that you always know when it's your kid calling, and you answer that call just about anywhere. You want to see pictures of where they live now, you want to hear more about their day to day life then you ever thought you'd ask for and you're trying to learn the fact that you're not going to get all the information that you might want.

The phone calls, far and few in between during Basic Training become very frequent during AIT, thank's to cell phones. Then once they get to their first permanent duty station the calls still come in almost daily for a while and although you're very happy about all this communication you know that any day now it'll stop. Hopefully not all together but it will become much less frequent because let's face it, we didn't call home on a day to day basis once we moved out did we? Once life on our own really got started I was to busy to call home daily, sometimes days without ever talking to my parents would pass before I knew it. I had a child to raise and a new country to get used to. And now my child has a Military career to get under way, and has to make his own new home - at least for the time that he'll spend there.
So now we relish in the small things and are happy to every once in a while hear that we are still needed by our kids - mostly for moral support and sending homemade baked goods :-))

Cell phones & Internet make it easier then ever to stay in touch and even if it's just a quick "good morning" or "I love you". 
Right now I'm a little sad because this Thanksgiving will be the first one we'll be spending without Erich and we're not entirely sure what to do with ourselves yet. There is also a chance that he won't be home for Christmas and I know that will make me sad and he would be very much missed if that'll happen.
But I'm well aware of the fact that we can count ourselves blessed because at least he's still in the same country and out of harms way for the time being. 
I've always supported our troops but I've become much more aware of the dangers of it all and since I've become friends with other Army Moms, which are a great support group, I've also seen how hard it can be when their kids have to head to places that are everything but safe. Through the same bunch of women I've learned of very, very sad things and I've got to witness very, very happy moments, all of them emotional in one way or another.
Because they may be all adults now, and they may be proud Soldiers now - in the end they are still our kids and always will be.