I made the announcement on Facebook that I would be participating in the A-Z challenge and it is officially starting today April 1st! The challenge is to write every day (except Sundays) in April assigning each letter a day. I decided to participate in the challenge after my blogging buddy, Erin from No Bohns About It talked about her theme for the challenge about a week ago. 

Even though having a theme for the challenge isn’t necessary, I knew if I didn’t have a theme things could get a little messy. So I decided my theme would be the ABCs of Military Life. 

A is for Approximate

With the military, everything is subject to change, especially deployments. The leave date, the location, the length of the deployment, and the return date all are approximate pieces of information. If I have learned anything, it is to never write anything military related in pen.

While my husband was deployed, anytime someone would ask me, “will your husband be home soon,” or “when is his return date.” I would always give a vague answer like, “early spring.” I could say it was because I was trying to be covert and was practicing amazing OPSEC, but in actuality it was mostly so I wouldn’t get my hopes up that he would be home by the approximate date his was given originally. 

And the approximately doesn’t just stop at deployments…the “normal” work day is approximately from 0730-1630, but I don’t know anyone that works that shift consistently. My husband always knows the approximate location of his cover, well, he knows he brought it in from the car, so it has to be in the house somewhere, right? We always have a general idea of approximately when PCS orders will come in, but that doesn’t always mean we know when we will be moving. The unknowns are all part it, and quite frankly I don’t know what I would do if my husband came home tomorrow with an exact plan of where we go next, when the next deployment will be, and the day he will return from said deployment. I don’t even believe him when he says he will be home tonight by 1700.