Back to Basic

We had not been apart more than 6 weeks before.... and that was the summer I went home to visit family right after we started dating.  Even then, we Skyped as much as possible and IM'd each other every chance we had.

This was a whole new experience for me.  I heard from him for less than 2 minutes the night that he left, this was when he told me that he made it safe, gave me his address, and told me he loved me.

I didn't hear from him again for about two weeks.  Thankfully at that point it was a 15 minute conversation.  I got to hear how he was doing, whether or not he liked it there and more.  The best part about it was just getting to hear his voice for that long.  I was grinning from ear to ear the rest of the week!

I had liked the Air Force Basic Training page on Facebook because I knew that they posted pictures of the trainees on occasion.  It was about week four when I found one single picture of him.

He's the one in the middle of the picture.

I was so excited that I sent it to most of the family and even called a couple of people to tell them that I had found him.  Just seeing him, knowing he was doing ok, and the weekly calls made the separation bearable.  

I think it was about 3 weeks into his training that I got my first letter from him.  Now, I had been writing him about twice a day since the moment he left, but simply seeing a letter from him in my mailbox.... at that point nothing was better.  I kept the letters and would read them a hundred times before the next ones came in the next week.

It was really hard for me, him being away.  I cherished every minute in the phone calls, every letter he sent, even the smell of his cologne on his hoodie that he left at home.  I had my bad days where I didn't even want to get out of bed because I missed him so much.  I also had my good days when I was able to write him an encouraging letter, or send him a picture.  My baking also kept me busy while he was away and helped keep my mind off of how much I wanted him back home.

I even had a weekly countdown, as any military wife/girlfriend/fiance does I'm sure.  My consisted of Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccinos.  I would drink one every Tuesday, starting the Tuesday after he left and drinking the last one the day before I left for his Graduation.  

I kept them all in my fridge at the same time, so that I had a daily visual reminder that the days were going by.  The empty ones would go to a shelf (where they still sit) as another reminder of how far we had made it so far.  It was a pretty good countdown if I may say so myself!

The 8 1/2 weeks at basic seemed to fly by and drag by all at the same time.  There were plenty of tears, stress, smiles and even laughter.  Holidays came and went and at the end I came to the realization that I DID SURVIVE!  

It is only by the grace of God that I didn't have a meltdown while Zac was at Basic.  There were plenty of times that I thought I wouldn't be able to stand another day where I couldn't talk to or see him.  But through it all my family and friends were there for me and so was Zac, through our phone calls and letters.  Plenty of people gave me words on encouragement and prayed for me and at the end we both came out of it having grown in ways we never imagined possible.

I can't say I would want to go through that again, but I now know that I can if it is needed.  Deployment is not something I look forward to, or wish for, but I know that if I can make it through basic then I can rise to any challenge the Military throws at us!