Godspeed, Daddy!

Cheery at 2am
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

Last night we said goodbye to Daddy, who left for Iraq. As seems to be customary in the Army, he departed in the middle of the night. Saying goodbye is always hard, and last night was no exception. But for a little girl woken up in the wee hours of the morning to wait around for a few more hours in the rain on post, Kathleen handled it like a trooper. The thing she seemed most upset about is that we wouldn't let her run around on the wet pavement in her pajama-ed feet!

We say goodbye to Daddy a lot -- when he leaves for work in the morning, when he goes back to work after lunch, when he takes out the trash, when he goes for a run -- so I'm not sure that this saying goodbye seemed much different to Kathleen. Of course, it is different. I haven't yet come up with an entirely satisfactory answer to Kathleen's more-than-occasional queries of "Dada?" For now I've just said that he's at work and that he'll be back in a while. We've been looking at his pictures, though, and watching the video he made reading stories for Kathleen. "Dada" is still Kathleen's favorite thing to say.

Daddy will be gone for about six months. We're grateful that this deployment is as short as it is, especially as our dear friends handle full-year deployments. We trust that God will sustain us through the separation and that He will use it for good in our lives and to His glory. He has already been faithful, even in the first day. I'd been afraid that the middle of the night departure would make for an exhausted mommy and a cranky Kathleen, but our day has been remarkably peaceful.

We love you and we miss you, Daddy. Be safe and come home soon!