The Daddy Chain

When trying to figure out the best way to help my 2 1/2 year old daughter understand the concept of time and the many days daddy would be gone while on his deployment, I remembered back to when I was child and what it was I would do to count-down the days to when something exciting would happen; we call it "The Daddy Chain"

There is a link on the chain for every day my husband is gone, and every night before bed we take a link off The Daddy Chain and Addie throws it away. It is always something to look forward to at night, and it is such a feeling of relief and accomplishment, to everyday take off a link and know we made it through that day and we are just one day closer to when we will all be together again.

Every night, as Addie walks to the trash can to throw away that day's chain, she says the same thing, "Yay, Daddy is coming home!"

We are more than half-way done with the deployment and everyday the chain gets shorter and shorter, such an amazing feeling.