The Gizmo Project

Being away from my kids is really hard.  For all of us, not just for me.  Although they're very well taken care of and absolutely loving their aunts and uncles, they still wonder where their mommy is.  A part of me feels really terrible about this, as if I've abandoned them.  The first month I was gone, Caden would randomly say "My mommy is at work."  He'd be playing and would just stop and say that.  And I knew without a doubt that it was because he was thinking of me and it was almost as if his way of coping with my absence was to tell himself out loud that I'm at work.  Sean, on the other hand, was the one I wondered about.  He was so young when I left him- only a year and a half old.  I'd wonder sometimes if he would forget me.  But my brother told me one day that Sean would see my picture and yell "Mommy!"  A big part of me was sad for him and another part of me was happy that he didn't forget me.  But it really makes me sad that they have to deal with the absence of their mom.

Deployed people deal with this in different ways.  Some Skype their kids every day, some rarely contact their families, and some spend loads of money sending gifts through online shopping.  One of my friends wears a bracelet his daughter made and sent him.  It makes him think of her every time he sees it.  I've taped their pictures all over the walls of my side of the room and every night before I sleep I look at their smiling faces.  But what about them?  How do we help our kids know that we think of them often?

My boss does something really cool to ensure his son knows.  Every time we travel to an outstation, he takes with him one of his son's legos.  It's a tiny little lego man.  He takes a picture of his lego man by the window of the plane and sends it to his son.  It really lets his son know he thinks of him.  So I've decided to try this with Gizmo.

The Gizmo Project will be a picture of Gizmo in every place of my deployment.  Since I just started this recently, I wasn't able to take pictures of a bunch of cool places.  But I'm making up for it by taking as many photos as I can.  I'm going to blog about each place Gizmo has been.  When I'm done with this deployment, Gizmo will be in Caden's arms and I'll end it with that picture.  I'll be making a little storybook about Gizmo's travels.  I'm hoping Caden will find this just as exciting as I do!

So be on the lookout for Gizmo blogs!  Hopefully I can accomplish this with huge success!