He's Home !!!

I don't know if any of you that have been following my blog for a long time remember me mentioning last spring that I was going through something in my family and having to remember that food is not the answer. 

For the safety of my family I chose not to mention the issue on my blog.  The issue was ... my husband had just deployed.  He is a dentist in the US Navy and last March he left on the 26h Marine Expeditionary Unit for an eight-month deployment. 

This past Monday he came home - right on time! 

This was our first deployment and while not the easiest thing in the world we've ever done we made it through safe and sound.  And now you know why...

• ...it was a big deal when I called him "My Hero" months ago.  I had put on five pounds since he left and was very frustrated with how emotional deployment had me.  I emailed him that I refused to let this deployment be the undoing of my weight loss and he wrote me the most amazing, encouraging email.  
• ... I was kind of sounding in a rush to want to be at my goal weight.  Even though that didn't happen I lost lots of inches and have been able to maintain 160, which is huge success and good enough for both of us. 
• ... running the half marathon was such a big deal.  I decided when he left running would be my therapy and it surely was.  I almost didn't do it because he wouldn't be here to see me finish, but I knew I had to get it done and it would give me something else to focus on during the long months with him away.  
• ... having Stephanie to run the race with me was so special.  It would've been such fun to have her come anyway, but knowing she was there when my husband couldn't be meant more than I can say.  She even allowed me a few tears when we returned to the car afterwards as I missed him so much in that victorious moment. 
• ... I didn't blog as much.  Being a "single parent" for eight months took up more time than I realized it would.  Emailing him daily took up a large part of my computer free time, so my blogging time went down drastically. 

To make it through such a life changing event with my weight still at its lowest is an amazing feat for me.  My kids were great troopers through it all.  The girls put up with hearing more about my weight loss than usual I think and my son was the only male in the house for the duration.  My husband was a great support via email from all different spots of the world and we have actually grown in our marriage as we've been forced to deal with some issues in different ways due to the separation.  

Things are now beginning to settle back into a normal family routine and I'm so happy.  I'm very proud of my husband for his service and happy to have kids who endured the deployment without causing major upset to our life.  Trust me, not everyone had such smooth sailing (pun intended..he was on a ship..) during deployment.  I am a very blessed woman. 

So, thank you for putting up with my minimal blog posting and reading these past months.  I'm hoping to get a little more regular with both from here on out.