Tell us a little about yourself:
My name is Candice. I'm 19 years old and I was born and raised in Southern Illinois, right across the river from St. Louis Missouri. I don't have any children, but if you'd ask me I'd say I have a daughter named Nahla, which is my Cat. I'm currently unemployed and a beauty school drop out, nice huh? I plan to either go to school for culinary arts or social working, I haven't made up my mind yet.
What is your relationship status?
We're not even technically engaged but we've planned out engagement, weird to most probably. We plan to get married in the court house the week he comes home, and have a ceremony later in 2012 sometime. So basically we won't ever be "engaged".
Do you have kiddos? If so, how has the transition to "single parenting" affected you?
Wil and I haven't seriously "tried" for children, but we're not stopping it once he comes home! What branch of service is your spouse/significant other?
United States Marine Corps.
What is your duty station?
Wil is stationed at Camp Lejuene in Jacksonville North Carolina. I think jacksonville is awesome and I'm super excited about the warm weather, but I'm also scared to death. I'm young, and I've never been away from my family. I've never even lived out of Illinois. Its going to be a culture shock, and a lot different even though its only an 18 hour drive. I'm sure I'll be homesick!How long is this current deployment?
Seven long months. I know people have it worse than me, but this is my first deployment and its tough! Sometimes I feel like times speeding up, but at other times I feel like its being nothing but a snail.
How often are you guys able to communicate?
Wil calls every other day. He could call everyday, but we've decided not to. Plus that gives him time to call his parents/friends/family, etc. He emails me on days he doesn't call. On the days he does call we get about a 30 minute phone call, then we (used to be Skype but we switched to Google talk for better quality) to chat/video chat for about an hour! I just recently started getting to video chat because he didn't have a webcam for awhile!
What kind of support (group) have you found during this deployment?
(other milspouses/blogging/family)
Blogging helps a lot. I wouldn't say my family exactly. Sometimes they ask questions but most of the time they ask the wrong questions at the wrong time. I am lucky enough to live 20 minutes away from a MilSpouse who's husband is deployed with Wil. We actually grew up together and have been best friends our whole lifes, and her and her husband is how Wil and I met!
Does your family support your spouse/significant others' choice to serve?
Yes! My late Grandfather and my father both served in the Navy. They understand the reasons why Wil serves, and they support him 100 percent!
What have you found that helps you cope best with the stress of deployment?
(blogging/religion/journaling)
Baking, cleaning and crafts - and of course blogging. I love doing things I enjoy to do that keep me occupied for awhile. I've recently made a peanut butter and jelly cupcake reciepe - come see my page and soon I'll post pictures and MAYBE my secrets for them! They're super yummy!
Thanks so much Candice for being the first Surviving Deployment feature,
we're all here for you and can't wait until Wil his home safe to you!
If you're surviving a deployment right now and want to be featured here
please email me at DeploymentSurvivor@gmail.com
and
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you're surviving deployment!
