Met with our son's recruiting officer, which wasn't on my to-do list last week since we were unaware, but fit into this week nicely enough. It's hard for me to switch gears, and go in directions I'd not previously expected. I get over-stressed, maybe to the extreme, but that's just the way I am. Calm on the outside, a mess on the inside.
Nice guy, though. Very personable and he kept asking if we had questions, which we really didn't. My husband had already had a heart-to-heart conversation with our son last night, and I was in the room, but not adding much. They covered, pretty much, all the loose ends. Before we left the National Guard office, the sergeant asked me if I had any questions, and I had to just shake my head. I said I knew he'd been through this many times before with parents, and I also knew that if I said more I'd cry. Just sort of full up.
It's all about giving birth to this child, and him having a precarious beginning anyhow, since I had problems early on with that pregnancy. Nothing long-lasting, but a few weeks in we thought we'd lost him. An ultra-sound showed that there was still a heartbeat, but for a day or so, we weren't sure. He's named Joseph for the story in the Old Testament about being lost and then being found. He's been lost spiritually as well, but thankfully seems to be on a sturdy path. For my boy to be in the military, albeit isn't the Marines, or another brutal branch, it's still going to be extremely hard. Boot camp ain't a walk in the park. That's hard for me.
This story plays out with families on a daily basis, but it's not happened to me or our kids, so that in itself is the challenge.
