El Paso!

B. got orders to report to Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas one week from today.  He is very excited - mainly to 'know' what is next and to get going!  It's been hard(est) on him to just be in 'pend' mode - doing work that he doesn't enjoy as 'busy work' while the wheels of assignment trudge along.  Knowing where and when is a good forward step for him and he's ready.

The only disappointment is it doesn't look like he will get any leave in between, which is a bummer....but we're hoping we can arrange a long weekend trip to El Paso in the not-too distant future for a visit.

Ft. Bliss is an armored division - so I'm surprised they are sending an infantry soldier there - but guess they have guys on foot accompany the tanks.

I don't see how any parent alive can read that last sentence and not get a bit of a gut clenching feeling....

Accompanying a tank.  On foot.  So the foot guys scope things out for the guys in the huge, armored vehicle as it lumbers along.

Yee gads.....

The anxiousness I was feeling about what would be next for him has given way to just a general anxiousness....though he is safe at Ft. Bliss, they are making deployments to Jordan.  'That's good!' people say 'cuz Jordan are allies of the US.  Translation:  Jordan doesn't despise us and won't try to kill Americans....but every country bordering theirs would...so somehow, that's not comforting.

A friend at work said 'I don't know how you are doing this - you are so brave.  If my son wants to join, I've told him I will break his legs so he can't.'.  (She doesn't mean it....not really).  I reply (as the parent of a young adult to the parent of a minor child still largely under parental control) 'if that's what he wants, you will support him.  You don't think you will, but you will - because that's our job as parents. What they want, we want for them.  And I'm not brave.  My son is.  I'm not.  I just try to cope and get through the day(s) as best I can.'

There is much change afoot in my life and I'm struggling under the weight of ten thousand boulders....I will write about some of it soon.  Today was a very hard day as the reality of what is happening sets in.

I know it will be OK.  I am positive it will...but change is just so damn hard and we've endured such a huge amount of change in the last few years....just when it was getting easier, it will be back to incredibly hard....

More soon.  If you're still out there reading, thanks.