why do they bother??

Let me tell you how useless the FRG is to me. Well, I guess I should elaborate on that first...Family Readiness Group...run by military wives who have volunteered to be leaders. They have meetings once a month to update us on our husbands. During Loren's first Iraq tour, I went to all of 2 meetings. I was VERY pregnant, in my 3rd trimester, and I got to a meeting a few minutes late...all the seats were taken, but there were a lot of women who could've given up their seats for me...

Not one person offered for me to sit down. So I left early and that was the last meeting I went to. I was so turned off by that.

So during the second deployment, I wasn't too gung ho on attending these meetings, but Rachel was going through it too, so I gladly went to the meetings with her. It made it a lot easier too because we were going through it together. We had each other.

This time, I have yet to go to a meeting. Loren is pretty much required to go to the meetings they have before the guys are deployed. They have to get all the necessary info. Which is good. He was able to give me his address before he even left.

I understand the need to have the meetings. I understand the women who go to every meeting religiously and do all the other activities offered. A lot of the wives aren't from around here. They don't have the amazing support system that I have. But a lot of the info they give out is usually wrong. Not that they purposefully do that. But it happens. You get good information and you get your hopes up. Then they turn it around on you and you're devastated.

So I find it best to just stay away from it all together. I'll wait to hear it directly from my husband. He knows more then most. Basically the reason for this blog is because I got an email about the shortened deployments. I had heard from a few different people that Bush was putting this into effect. That no soldier would be deployed longer than 12 months. My first thought was that it definitely didn't apply to Loren. I figured the guys that are already over there aren't going to reap the benefits of this. Although, shortening an already stupid long deployment to a "normal" length is ridiculous to me.

So I read the letter...it's an official type, from a big commander or something. Anyway, it basically said that the soldiers already deployed will be there for the length of the original time line. And any soldier deploying after August 1st will only be there for a year.

I'm not sure why the FRG leaders were told to send this out because I'm pretty sure anyone included in our group of soldiers has already been deployed. This is why I can't really stand the FRG. Why get the hopes of these terrified wives up only to bring them crashing back down to earth??

I'm just glad I've been trough this 2 times before. I have been well prepared for what comes along with a deployment. I know there will be aspects that are different but I'm strong. I'm not going to be humble on this point...I know I'm strong, I know I can handle whatever happens. And that's because I have such a wonderful Savior!

So send me all the pointless emails you can think of, FRG...I'm not buying it!!