That's what families do.

You all know that moment (whether you've seen it in person or on TV). That moment when someones kid runs towards the buses crying "Dad, Dad, please come back! Don't leave me! Please, Dad, no!" Today that kid was mine. He's 3 1/2. To him, Dad is the center of the universe. Sure I'm there, and I handle the day to day things like feeding him, clothing him, etc but from Dad comes all good things in life. Things like jumping and running and flipping, building train tracks and the all important fixing things skill. These are all things that Mom could do but why would she bother with her mediocre at best attempts when there is Dad who does it all the best.

I've been trying to prepare him for this pretty much since we found out that my husband was going to be deploying again. We've talked and talked and talked until I was blue in the face it seems about how Dad has to go to Afghanistan for work, that he will be gone a long, long time and that we are all going to stay here while Dad goes away. I let him know that I was going to be staying with him, that I would always be there and that his Dad and I love him and are proud of him for being so brave. None of that seemed to matter in that moment though, as his little body was wracked with sobs and I struggled to hold him back while balancing his younger brother on my hip and my belly swollen from the yet unknown New Baby. He was scared, felt abandoned and all of the other emotions that swirl through your heart and head as the doors of those buses close. I was certain that in spite of my best efforts, I had failed him.

But later that day, while he and his brother were in their room I heard him talking to his brother. He told him about how much his Daddy loved him even though Daddy had to go far away for work and how we were all going to take care of one another. We were going to love and take care of each other he said because "That's what families do." And it is. And maybe, just maybe, I haven't totally failed him. Maybe there is no way to protect him from the heartbreak that goes along with saying goodbye but maybe I did give him the foundation he needs to know that we will get through it. Together.

It's just another one of those things that families do.