The introduction

I've decided for those who care to take this journey with me, to give you a look of what it's like to be a military mom. No disrespect to the military wives but the perspectives are different. Not insinuating better or worse, just different.

Today is July 1, 2007 and my son has received his official orders of deployment. This will be his second tour to Iraq. His first tour was 12 months, this next tour will be longer.

My son is in the 1-87th 10th Mountain, light infantry, he's 21 years old and about to take another journey to Iraq; and this will be my story.

My name is Karen and my soldier is my only son. I was a single parent for 15 years before marrying a wonderful man willing to take on a woman with a teenage son. God bless him. I remember the first deployment and being such a newbie to it all. I have a friend whose son was a Marine. She gave me pointers, don't watch the news, remember no news is good news and keep yourself busy. I fought day in and day out to keep my fears and worries in check. I drove down a street and burst into tears when I saw numerous Blue Star Banners aligning the middle of the street with the names of the servicemen and women serving from that city. Trying to remember to think positive. How those days seem like yesterday, but yet it was a year ago; and now I'm about to go down this road again. Sigh, I don't want to but I will for my son, in support of him.

Over the years I've met some military moms, nice to know I'm not the only one going through this, but there a lot of those out there that have no idea. Sometimes I want to yell, "don't tell me he's going to be alright, you don't know that!" But I must be strong and then there are times I'll just cry. I worry about my soldier, I miss him and love him dearly. I'll be seeing him shortly before he deploys. I look forward to seeing his smiling face. I'll be praying for him.



That's all for now.