A Small Heart Is Broken

My daughter got a first hand look at an OIF deployment yesterday. Her best friend Josh left for Iraq. He came by to see her one more time and I took this picture. It should have been a private moment for them but when he gets home I want to be able to show her the pictures of the day he left. And be able to say.."see..remember when mom took this? You said he wasn't coming back and look!!"

She is taking this much harder than I had thought. But then again she is my child and her heart is tender..so I don't know why I expected different. I went and did my USO duty, I sent off his plane..and yes everyone was right..I HAD to be there and I was. That is a blog for another day..while I was there she must have called me 5 times to try to talk to him again but he was not around. On her last call I held up the phone so she could hear his plane taking off. She ran onto the porch to try to see it but she couldn't. I showed her the pictures I had taken earlier in the night. She was very angry with me because I didn't let her go. I tried to explain that children aren't allowed there...but she wasn't hearing me..she was mad at the world. Her buddy was gone and to her a year may as well be forever. Now with the upcoming deployment of the rest of the brigade I'm reminded of how many others there will be just like her. So many small hearts will be broken.