I think the most encouraging things people said to me in letters and phone calls were not that they missed me, but that they were "proud" of me and that they knew I could do it and things like that.  Try to focus more on the encouragement and how proud you are instead of missing him, even though you do.  Those phone calls mean EVERYTHING, and they are very short.

You know what I remember most?  The letters, I still have every single one that anyone sent to me.

I specifically remember one where my Grandma (who I had lived with before I left) wrote "I miss all you kids running around here and getting up to make you pizzas at midnight.  Well, all except for that boy, I don't miss him at all.  He was no good for you."

That still makes me giggle.  I wonder what she would say if she knew 12 years later I still talk to him all the time on MySpace.

He's at Fort Benning. I know BCT is a process to weed out the weak, I just found it kind of amusing to learn that within the first 2 weeks, many of guys couldn't hack it. But I suppose that's better for the country in the end to have the best soldiers possible who understand why they are there. My husband is very intelligent and knew what he would be getting into...he did his research and understood the harsh treatment and yelling from the DS's to be all a game that you play while earning your way up on the food chain. I've gotten 2 letters from him which I suppose is pretty good so far. I try to stay busy and I read and play with my doggies who require a LOT of attention. I'm anxious to hear about his training with the gas mask in the gas chamber...from what I understand they teach them how to use the mask, then make them take it off and endure CS gas for 2 minutes reciting various things. That seems like something you would never ever forget experiencing! I know he will love all the guns he will get to shoot. I'm sure it will be the time of his life. Just wish time was going faster!

Yes, he's set to graduate in June. I am going to be there. However, I got 2 letters today and he has been stuck in the clinic with cellulitis (bad infection) in his foot! He's on 2 antibiotics, and he sounded really discouraged. I really hope this doesn't set him back a week, but it very well might. Bummer! Stupid army people giving everyone a massive dose of penicillin during reception! I'm sure that set up his infection right then, killing all his good defenses, so when his boots wore his feet raw, infection formed fast. I'm bummed for him. He wrote those letters Sunday/Monday, so I have no idea how he is now or if he's even back with his platoon. I FINALLY have his address though so now I can write him, and he said he was very anxious to start getting some letters. Poor guy