"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. " ~Carol Sobieski and Thomas Meehan, Annie
 Our oldest son left for a field trip today that will take him away from home for four days. It is a great opportunity to study marine life at an institute in the Florida Keys with his classmates. We have been excited about this since we learned about this trip at the beginning of the year. Packing was fun and talking about what he might see and do has been interesting. Today, when we drove up to the school, the class of students was congregated outside in the parking lot around a large touring bus with parents waiting for the inevitable departure of their kids.
 The sight of the touring bus stirred an emotion in me that I wasn't prepared for. The last time I drove up to a bus that had a congregation of people prepared to leave it was for the first deployment. The Battalion assembled at the gym and families were there to say their goodbyes as the Soldiers boarded a fleet of large touring buses. It was dark outside when the buses pulled off and the families stood in the parking lot, behind the bus, waving goodbye. One by one, the buses disappeared in the darkness and we were left standing, tears flowing, beginning to feel the reality of deployment. It was a painful moment. It was hard for me, it was hard for the kids and it was horrible to see the anguish that it caused the many family members that were there. I put this memory out of my mind until today.
 The teenagers boarded the bus, followed by the teachers and chaperons and the parents stepped aside to let the bus drive away. As we waved to the passing bus, the memories of one goodbye made this one bittersweet. It is only four days and it is an amazing opportunity for our oldest child to learn and spread his wings. This goodbye gave me the opportunity to reconcile my feelings for the first one. The pain of goodbye is a reminder that I'm blessed to have relationships that mean so much. Blessed to have a marriage to my soul mate and love of my life. Blessed to have a relationship with my teenage son that makes me miss him the moment I'm waving goodbye from behind the bus.