Another Week Down

We're another week down and still wondering when we are going to have the news of when R&R is going to be.
Time is going nowhere and now when I say "it wont be long until he is home again" I'm really starting to believe it. Keeping my days filled, my daughter is certainly keeping me on my toes. She's going to give her daddy such a shock when he returns to us for R&R, she's going to be so big by then.
People on the "outside" often ask me how I am, whether I'm coping or not, as horrible as it sounds, our lives can't stop just because the love of my life is in the middle of a war zone. If we stopped and sat to dwell on the situation all the time, we wouldn't get through this tour. The only way to do it seems to be to keep yourself as busy as possible. I spend the days with my daughter, visiting friends, getting my shopping done and leave the small things until the weekend. They are the worst and leaving things like cleaning until then or even soaps that I've recorded during the week seem to make them go quicker as you aren't just sat around waiting for time to slowly pass.
Each day at a time. I still can't begin to understand anything about how he must be feeling out there. Understandable he can hide it all because to him he is just doing his job and has to concentrate fully without any situations back home becoming the forefront of his concentration.
Our daughter has begun to do so much since he left and seems to be so bright, I often sit and wonder whether she will know who he is once he returns for a week at home with us. I try to show her pictures each day and explain to her that its her daddy and that he loves and misses her. I give her kisses and cuddles before bed and tell her that daddy has sent them over thousands of miles.
When it comes to a tour and you have a child so young many of us often worry about what its going to be like, we dread the day that they leave and wonder how we will cope without them being here. As a matter of fact, as much as we are only used to having ourselves to worry about during a tour for those of us that have been through this before, we now how a little person to concentrate on and help fill our time with plenty of smiles and happiness. It isn't all as bad as it seems to be at first. We keep our days full with planning things and for those important milestones of what our little ones learn we take pictures - lots of them. It will become the norm for you to take your camera every where you go for those "just in case" moments.
Does it ever cross your mind as to how our men will find it at the end of tour to come back home to us and try to fit into the way we have run things over the past months whilst they have been gone? Those deep thoughts often run through my mind, how will he settle back into home life and being around our daughter, will he settle in okay, or will he have trouble along the way? They have to know that not only through the tour but also once they return that they will still have our support should they need it. Its not as easy as a lot of people expect it to be for them to settle with no difficulties at all. There will always be some bumps along the way but those are the bumps that you learn to deal with one step at a time.
As the saying goes, "One Step At A Time, Each Day As It Comes".......