“Dear deployed military significant other,
I see you. I know it hurts. I know it’s hard.
I know the days are long and the nights are lonely.
I know the feeling of embodying two parental roles.
I know the absolute heart-wrenching pain you feel when you watch your child cry out for their missing parent.
I know the emotions deployment brings on.
The overwhelmed times, the stress, the depression, the heartache, and the doubt.
But I also know the good. The ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this’ feeling.
The ‘superhero, I am balancing it all and I am OWNING this’ feeling.
The ‘I can be the single parent, take care of the house and myself’ feeling.
Soaking up the feeling of how separation makes your heart grow even more in love with your partner.
The ‘becoming the bad*ss version of yourself’ feeling.
The ‘I am doing it all and surviving’ feeling.
The good days might not be consistent, but they are there! Feel them, acknowledge them.
Bask in your self-growth and achievements of operating on your own.
Let your bad days live too. Breathe them in and most importantly breathe them out.
At the end of the day, above all, you got this because you are #deploymentstrong.
With love,
A wife of a deployed soldier.”
This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Jessica Edmisten, 23, of Ohio. You can follow her journey on Instagram here. Do you have a similar experience? We’d like to hear your important journey. Submit your own story here. Be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube for our best videos.
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