Maxwell arrived to South Carolina to star the paperwork process, he called me two to three times a day, he sounded so sad every time, he was angry and afraid. I had to play it off and pretend to be ok, had to be the strong one even though I would break down crying after each phone call.

I used to tell myself, "things happen for a reason" but I used to question the reason. I had to smile in front of the kids, I felt helpless and I used to look forward to going to work every morning like never before. I was working for hospice, and having all those wonderful patients and their families was one of the things that kept me going but everytime I lost one it was a step back, all those little ladies in the dying process thought me so many lessons about life and made me a better person.

After two weeks, Maxwell had to go to Missouri for some more for a quick refreshment about his job, had been 3 years of his active duty discharge.

Two more weeks went by and he arrived in New Jersey for combat training, which finished 5 days before being deployed so I was lucky to have him for those days, since he had a last minute leave, I couldn't request them off work, plus finding a same day flight was hard and so expensive to the point he told me "forget about it, I don't want you to spend our savings." I couldn't miss the chance we had been given of being together one more time, so I got him the plane tickets.

We spent 3 evenings together, 2 days were gone traveling and the mornings working.
Before I knew it, I was back at the airport, once again we hugged and kissed until his name was called and of course, another sad and lonely drive home.

Next day was the big day: Maxwell was on his way to Iraq...........................

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Need to catch up?
Deployment, Part I

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Additional NOTES from Pam:
* Certain details will be edited to protect security concerns or family privacy. My edits appear in brackets [ ].

* Maxwell's status as the blog's "adopted" Hero, and Natalia's posts about her experiences, should NOT be construed as their endorsement of any opinion I post on this blog, or representative of any policy or position of the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense, or any other government entity. This is merely a way to allow readers to learn more about what military families experience, and to offer an opportunity to support a deployed Hero and his family.

* To learn what you can do to help, click on Maxwell's picture over on the left, or go here.
To adopt "your own" Hero, visit Soldiers' Angels.