We thought he’d be gone by now based on the word at the end of July: Deployment in August.

That plan quickly fell apart due to a boatload of paperwork and tasks Dad still needed to do. Next we were told September and then November. Finally, they settled on the beginning of 2010. Dad will be temporarily assigned to another base for a few months before heading to Afghanistan for a year.

There are a lot of things I could be thankful for this year – that Boots is thrilled with his new school, that Big Guy is doing well in his even though he still can’t keep quiet in class. That through asthma, collapsed lungs and broken bones we had health insurance. That I’m able to adjust my schedule to achieve some of that mythical work-life balance.

But most of all, I’m thankful that we’re together for the holidays, in all of our fussing, grumping glory.

I’m thankful for baseball games and NASCAR races. For family dinners and for going upstairs and seeing people stretched across the bed watching TV in their BVDs. That makes me smile, because one of the first things I told Dad when we found out Boots would be a boy was, “Great. Soon there will be three of  you wandering around here in  your underwear.”

I’m thankful most of all for time. We want to rush it along when we’re young and grind it to a halt when we’re older. Only in rare circumstances do we use it wisely, savoring every precious second.

We’ve been able to do that for the past five months, because we know that a year from now we won’t have luxury. We’ll adjust, all of us. Dad to a strange life in a foreign land, the rest of us to a strange life at home without him.

For now, the big people at least are trying not to think of that and just be. I’m amazed and grateful that much of the time, we’re able to pull it off.

Copyright 2009 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.

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