A Little's Boy's Understanding

We have been discussing deployment with Caleb for some time now, preparing him for it. I think he understands pretty well what it is, what Eric will be doing, and how long he will be gone. We used the time between birthdays as an example to put it into perspective for him.

But Nate has only just turned 3, and until very recently, I was pretty sure he was not able to understand the concept at all. In the past few weeks, he has started asking some questions, though. Mostly after hearing Caleb ask Eric (for the millionth time), if he really has to be gone for a whole year, or if it can just be a few weeks? A few weeks ago, Caleb was talking to Eric about Afghanistan, and Nate joined in. He asked if Daddy was going "dancing with Sam". We didn't get it at first. Huh/ Dancing with Sam? But then Nate said, "Daddy, are you going dancing with Sam to fight bad guys?"

Ohhhhhhh. Dancing-with-Sam = Afghanistan.

Go ahead and cry. I did.

Another example: Today I asked Nate if he knows what Afghanistan is now. He said yes, so I asked him what, and he just ignored the question, like he does sometimes. So I asked him if he knew what Daddy was going to be doing there. He said, "Getting us some pwesents!". Sigh. Ok, so how long is Daddy going to be gone? "Until we open them!".

And my first thought after that was, "We better make sure Eric is able to have some presents with him when he comes home", because the thought of poor little Nate just not understanding what is going to happen hurts my heart and I don't want to think about it. He will be old enough to understand that Daddy is never around, but not old enough to understand why, or that he will eventually come back. I won't be able to give him any perspective on how much longer it will be.

I'm worried for all three of the boys. I don't want them to be sad and hurting and confused. I want to be able to make this tough time as easy on them as possible. I guess I need to pray for God to give me wisdom to help them understand and to comfort them. If anyone is reading this, say a prayer for all the little military children. They go through such hard times while they are so little.