DADDY'S DEPLOYING

This book began as a poem I wrote while my husband was deployed through his first child's first year. He struggled as he missed his son's first words, first foods, first steps, and first birthday. While only seeing his son's little world through photographs, he emotionally grappled to connect with him and become a father figure. In what I wrote, I hoped to capture all of the sentiments associated with military families-parents and children-when facing a deployment. Nothing can give them that time back with their children, and nothing makes up for that initial absence of connection between deployed parent and their children, especially a first child. In this book, I highlight the similarities of their current geographical worlds and draw father and son closer by showing they are both looking at the same moon, stars, and sun. It helped my son connect with his daddy, knowing when he looked up in the sky at the same time his daddy was too. They could share a moment together, and my son and I could feel less alone. -Marlene Norgard