Absence makes the heart grow ___

...well, a lot of things. I believe the saying fills that blank with the word fonder. I think Marc and I have moved a level beyond fondness. When I was in college, I took a trip to Haiti with a woman who had been married for 30 years and was spending her first night away from her husband. I remember thinking then how odd/awesome that was, but at that point I had no idea how different my life would be from hers. When Marc joined the Army in 2000, we had already practiced being separated. We were high school sweethearts, and he was a year ahead of me in school, so his first year in college, I stayed behind in Florida. Our first Army separation was for basic training/AIT; he was gone for about 6 months. I was in my senior year of college, and we didn't have any children. After training, he spent one weekend each month and two weeks each summer in Kentucky. When he went through flight school (the first time), he was in Alabama without us for 3 months at the beginning and 3 months at the end of that training. Wesley was only four months when he left and 18 months when we moved to Nashville. Our next separation (and probably the most challenging to date) was when he went back to Alabama for Longbow school. Catelynn was 4 months old, and Wesley was almost 4 years old. Marc was supposed to be gone for four months...not a small amount of time. In the end, he was gone for eight months! I won't lie. It was horrible. But possibly good practice for what is ahead? Going into this year-long deployment, we have, by my calculations, spent a total of approximately two years of our ten year marriage apart. I can't begin to describe (or even comprehend) what effect that has had on our relationship. In my experience, absence makes the heart grow. Period.