I will watch him walk away. (I'm sure I'll continue to add to this.)

FOR THEM

My children will cry and I'll hold them and attempt, unsuccessfully to dry their eyes.
I'll pretend desperately, to be okay, as I die inside.
I'll hide my fears, my wants, and my needs, and hold OUR children as they try to understand why.
I'll fake knowledge to answer the questions that pour from their tiny mouths.
I'll get up at all hours of the night to hold an aching 6 year old, who can't face one more day without her daddy.
I'll try to understand that our two year old son is confused and hurting, but doesn't know what is going on.

I'll have to print a picture for our daughter to take to school, to post on the deployed parent's board.

I'll have to take her to the park, or Chuck E Cheese afterwards, to hope she forgets for just a moment that he isn't home and won't be for a long time.

FOR ME

I'll cook for 4 and throw away enough for 2, because my appetite will die along with him deploying.
I'll keep a neater home, because he won't be around to dirty it up.
I'll kick myself for ever complaining that he left his boots in my way.
I'll learn to change a flat because I'll get one.
Anything that can go wrong, will.
I'll learn to cut the grass and do it later than I should, even though I fussed at him for the same.
I'll pretend that he's beside me in our King sized bed at night, and cry, because I know that he's not there.
I'll have awful dreams and literally, be still inside until I hear from him.

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I write this for all of the wives, because as different as we all are, our emotions are all the same and very real. It's a very rigid reality that we are going to be on our own, for a long time.  Luckily, we have the resources that are offered to us and great friends, who can relate, because let's face it.... even our closest friends from where we're from and even our families can't console us right now.