Jessica Appelberg, a military mother of two, wrote a letter about what “broke” her and her husband. She addressed the note to her two young kids. Jessica married a man who chose to enlist knowing that their relationship would be a difficult one due to the long distance between then.
However, Jessica knew that their kids would have no say in the matter. The way her husband’s deployment affected their children would often leave the couple in tears.
The father missed the birth of his daughter, and had to depart from his son when the baby was 14 months old. To serve often means to sacrifice.
“It broke both of us that he couldn’t be there to see you make your grand entrance into the world, but we outwardly addressed the mantra of ‘it is what it is,’” Jessica wrote in a letter to her children. “The night before he left, your dad asked me if you would ever forgive him for not being there. And I knew he wasn’t just talking about your birth. He was talking about all of the things in your life that he’s going to miss.”
The emotional letter was meant to serve as an explanation to her kids, so that when they are old enough, they understand that their father was doing something for the greater good. However, the letter quickly went viral, because so many military families could relate.
“Military children, they go through a great deal and I don’t think it’s easy sometimes to brush it off,” Jessica said.
Jessica is confident that her kids will be able to forgive their father for his absence once they understand why he had to leave.
“Your father has bravely chosen to answer the call to serve his country, and his choice will impact you in ways we never planned,” she wrote. “But always know that together or oceans apart, we’re exceptionally proud of our military children.”
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