17 November 2006

Making Myself a Blue Star Flag

Big changes lie ahead. Delays, maybe, and certainly scary times. I am consumed by hopes and fears, and distracted from concern about our house.

My husband (former USMC) has been asked to return to Active Duty. He is going to go. We've discussed it, and I understand his reasons. If I couldn't cope with this possibility, I would have run screaming when he asked me out. It's my job to stand by him, keep the family together, and make sure he's got a home to come home to. It's my job to be strong so he can be strong.

It's going to put a cramp in our working on the house, but right now, that's the least of our problems, and at the same time the biggest. We're living with my mom right now, and working on our house just down the road, so we have a place to live, but our house isn't yet livable. I want to be *in* the house before he is gone, I want ... more time.

There's so much I want to say that's just not appropriate for this venue. Much of it is layers of emotion that's got no place in trying to prepare for this. All the personal stuff just keeps bubbling to the surface, as I write, and interrupting me. And there are things that keep coming into my head that I don't want to write because of what they might mean.

I wrote a post over at houseblogs.net asking if there were any other people trying to fix up a house with a deployed spouse, and I've had an amazing outpouring of support. It honestly floored me. I also have just realized that I have an online acquaintance who is going through exactly this, though she doesn't have the added wrinkle of kids. Her husband has been deployed 3 times (or is it 4?). She asked if I knew of anyplace to get a nice Blue Star Flag - I didn't. I'd been trying to figure out how to ask her.

I think, now, that I'm going to make her one, when I make mine.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish that I was close enough to help. What a courageous decision for your family to have made... Thank you....

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine bought her "Blue Star Flag"
off e-bay. It was an original from WWII.
You can also buy them at:
http://www.serviceflags.com/serviceflags.htm


I wish I was close enough to come over and help out
too!!

Thanks to you and your husband for his service to our country.

Anonymous said...

Local American Legion or Veterans groups distribute the flags free to familys.
They also depending on your community - set up schedules to help out with yard/house maintenance. One family in our community was in the midst of re-doing a house (like you are) and the guys pitched in on weekends and during the week for the retired guys and got a lot of the work done.
Ask because there may be a few trades people that would do some of the work for free/reduced cost.