always home and never helping or always gone and can't help

so i was reading some posts on the mommy board i frequent and got to thinking, which is tougher: having your husband home but always busy (whether it be work or the xbox) or having your husband always gone and not able to help?

as i thought about it as i was putting cayman to bed, i came to this conclusion: i personally feel that i have it easier knowing that aaron can't be here to physically help with things like taking out the garbage on pick up day or giving cayman his bath so i can have five minutes to pee in peace. see, if he were here and always busy with work or other things, i would be disappointed and honestly, i would feel cheated. having him some 7,982 miles away doesn't make the bedtime routine any easier or in the case of today of both cayman and i being sick any better, but knowing that he isn't just 3 miles down the road does.

see, we live in a great family neighborhood. however, i was talking with some of the other mommies and started wondering, how do they deal with the fact that their husbands aren't deployed but always in the field, sometimes day at a time, sometimes just really long hours, and can't come home to help yet aren't that far away? it would drive me personally batty if aaron was assigned to jrtc and ops group and constantly in the field training soldiers who are preparing to deploy. it's important job, don't get me wrong. but to know he's that close and yet can't be home with us.

either way, i believe God puts us in situations to make us who we are and who we will become. I have become strong in many ways, yet need aaron more then anything. and with Christ as my compass and guide, i know aaron and i will make it through anything.