Something Special for Your Deployed Spouse

Any army wives fans out there? Well I started watching last season and needed to catch up on the seasons before it. With all the army wives I've been watching and the fact that my husband will be deploying in two months I have got to thinking about special things I can do for him for his deployment and I have came up with a few ideas I thought I would share with you.

1. Have each close friend and family member handwrite a one page(or longer) letter to the spouse getting ready to deploy. Collect all letters and have them binded into a book. Give it to the soldier right before they get on the plane. I feel like this would be an awesome thing for the military spouse to look at for encouragement. To know all those people are there to love and support him/her is exactly what I think they would want when they're deployed.

2. Buy a journal. In the months or weeks leading up to a deployment write a letter in the journal for each day they will be deployed. Tell your spouse not to read ahead and to read one letter a day. (In my case this would be 120 letters) You could also just send out a new journal once they are about to finish one. Get creative with this! This is something I am considering doing for my husband because with recent events I just want him to know how much I love him and care about him. I think it would be so neat for him to always have something read straight from me.

3. Make a photobook. A lot of websites offer these free as a special deal(snapfish, kodak..etc). I did one of these for my husband. I included pictures from when we were dating, pictures from our wedding, and pictures of our daughter. It's something he will always keep with him because it's so small.

4. Get him/her something (s)he'll really use(this depends on their job). I got my husband a camelback for his birthday which is this friday. He works outside on the flightline and gets really hot. Especially in the desert during the summer! This way he always has access to water. It's so lightweight and thin he could even wear it under his uniform.

Hope this helped anyone else getting ready for a deployment! If I come up with more ideas I will let you know!