Weapons qualification earned.  All medical appointments met.  Legal paperwork is together.  And of course the bags are packed. I have spent much of my week getting to know some of the other individuals training through this site. We have talked and shared stories from different places in the military.  We have laughed at others' war stories.  We have even shared the challenges of our respective professions to see how others have handled similar problems. As the week has progressed, one of the first few questions out of anyone's mouth is typically, "Where's home?" and "Any kids?"  Men and women alike, the same questions are asked. Men will tell you ages and the children's names if you specifically ask, but the conversation typically ends there about family.  Occasionally, I will hear, "Wow... I bet it's harder for a Mom to deploy" from the men I am speaking to.  Yesterday, I expressed, "Well, I can't be in both shoes, so I do not know."  I finally got a candid answer as to why people think it is harder for a woman: the relationship that is shared between mother and child.  The men told me they watched their wives interact with their children and can only imagine what it must be like for them to be separated for any amount of time. 

I shared dinner with a group of female captains.  Our opening statements were about our children without asking if we had any, and then phones or ipods were talken out and pictures were shared.  One woman showed a picture of the ZhuZhu pet her son gave her to bring along.  I pulled my ACU rubber ducky from my pocket and showed it to the other women sitting at the table.  We shared stories of our children, laughed, and talked as if we did not need to go back to pack bags or finish that one last item before pulling out of the states for a while.  We quickly bonded over our children as we would have in the park, at the office, or any other setting.  It's a universal language for Mom's everywhere. 

What made me even more impressed, was this was neither one of these woman's first rodeo.  One had deployed a few times and she expressed the plan she had for her child each and every time.  Of course it's hard, but there's also a bond developed through these hardships everywhere: one with family and the deployed spouse, mother to mother, and across many generations who have done this before.