During my husbands first deployment I wanted to find a way to share all the things I experienced while he was gone. I had a wonderful friend that shared the idea of keeping a journal but when I told me husband that he was frank and told me he didn't want to reread it all since most likely I'd email him the exact same things that I'd write down every single day so I had to go back to the drawing board. Like most woman in general I'm addicted to Pinterest and I came across this amazing thing called a Smashbook, I'd always wanted to become a scrapbooker but I wasn't a fan of all the rules. I love photo albums but they're too boring and scrapbooks are so beautiful but they lacked the feeling of real life but Smashbooks, smashbooks are real, Smash books relate to me and I decided I was gonna do it. I didn't tell my husband and I made his first scrapbook all about what he missed, I wanted to make him feel like he was still apart of every moment and that I didn't forget about him, even while having fun. When my husband got this book after deployment he was shocked. He told me that he cried ( I was hospitalized and didn't get to be there for my husbands homecoming, it was tough but we got through it) and that it was the greatest gift he'd ever recieved. And that made it all worth it, this deployment, like my carepackages I've taken even further. I'm trying to learn more through Facebook groups and Pinterest pages and Instagram posts and I'm just trying really hard to put everything I can into my husbands book because I know it means a lot to him. This year I've also allowed each one of my nieces to make their own pages.
This is my Reagan working on her page, she really liked adding stickers. I think this makes it more personal for them and they get to feel closer to Dylan, I also let them help with his care packages and we make and send him pictures often because staying connected is not only important for me but it's important to them. The girls love him so much and I know that they don't fully understand why he's gone but I do everything to remind them how much he loves them and keep their relationship strong despite him not getting to be there for them.
If I can set up a skype date they both really appreciate it because he only gets a couple days in port every couple of months and they get to talk to him and ask him questions instead of it always being me speaking for them.
Staying connected during a deployment it so incredibly important and by sending care packages, making scrapbooks, writing emails often and annotating books my spouse and I manage to stay close to one another and continue to strengthen our bond. It's not easy but if you find things that work for you despite the distance you can navigate your way through a deployment and come out with an even stronger marriage because of it.
Any Day But Today,
Kayla
This is a link to an amazing Smashbook group on Facebook, the people on here are incredibly creative and share such wonderful ideas to inspire anyone. This is a closed group but I promise you won'tregret joining this amazing page.
This is my Reagan working on her page, she really liked adding stickers. I think this makes it more personal for them and they get to feel closer to Dylan, I also let them help with his care packages and we make and send him pictures often because staying connected is not only important for me but it's important to them. The girls love him so much and I know that they don't fully understand why he's gone but I do everything to remind them how much he loves them and keep their relationship strong despite him not getting to be there for them. 
If I can set up a skype date they both really appreciate it because he only gets a couple days in port every couple of months and they get to talk to him and ask him questions instead of it always being me speaking for them. 
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