The Beginning

As a military family, separations are a part of our life. Gideon and I have been together through three deployments, engaged while living in two different countries, married and living in two different states, and multiple training operations. Gideon’s Officer Candidate School, which lasts for six weeks, is our first prolonged separation since we have had kids. And while six weeks isn’t that long for us, in the world of a 9 month old and 3 year old, it is an eternity.


The beginning of a separation is definitely an adjustment time. At first, you still expect him to come home at normal time and it almost feels like he is just at work for the day. Slowly, we are all realizing that he is not coming home at the end of the day.

Right now we are figuring out how we are going to do everything with one less person around. Mornings and daytime is still pretty normal. We, however, have to learn how to do dinners, bedtimes, and baths without Daddy. It has been going well so far, but there have been a few snags and things we still need to figure out.

To make things a little easier on the girls, we got them a Daddy Doll, which is a pillow with a full body image of Gideon. We also got Hadley a recordable book. She has already listened to it so many times that she has it memorized and can say it along with Gideon’s voice.

The beginning of a separation is difficult because we are adjusting to everything and the end seems so far away. At the same time, the beginning is also some of the easiest time because we haven’t had time to miss him too much and it still feels like he is going to walk in the door any minute.

Getting her recordable book from Daddy

Loving on the Daddy Doll at the airport