I wanted to start this post by first thanking all of you for all of the kind comments and e-mails Matt and I have received the past week or so. It really does mean so much to the both of us.

Now, we have some news I might as well go ahead and share. It may not be as important as the automaker bailout or yet another corrupt Illinois politician in the news, but it is big news to me.

As many of you know, Matt just returned to me from Iraq about a month and a half ago. He’s in the Marine Corps infantry — a rifleman, specifically — and it’s been great having home, even with the havoc it’s wreaked on my schedule! We had tentative news that his next deployment would be in 2010 on a med float. And, as those of you on my Facebook or who follow me on Twitter already know, those plans have changes.

Matt is being sent back to Iraq… and fairly soon. We found out last week.

My reaction has, of course, been predictable. I cried and cried. He just came back, and now he has to leave again? It seemed so unfair. But I got over my pity party relatively quickly and right now, I’m in North Carolina doing the best I can to be there for him. This will be his third deployment to Iraq, and he’s getting tired of going — especially now that it’s, as he says, “boring”. The biggest issue he’s facing is the pain this is causing everyone he’s leaving behind: me, his family, his friends. If he were an unattached man with no loved ones to worry about, this would likely be much easier on him.

As for me, I’m preparing myself for six more months of solitude. From what we can tell, he’s going to be outside the wire much more often this time around. This last deployment, we were able to talk every day, something that seems very unlikely this time around. I’m not expecting to hear from him much at all, which only makes it harder to bear and easier to worry. I’m trying as hard as I can to be strong for him, though, to be supportive and let him know I’m here for him. While I obviously don’t love his going away to war yet again, of course I support him, like I did when he reenlisted and I’ll stand by him through this. It isn’t easy, but I knew that this was part of the package when we first started dating. His willingness to fight for his country and for what he believes in only make me love him more.

There is something I hope all of you will be able to help me with. He isn’t scheduled to leave for a little while, but I figured I’d go ahead and post this to gauge interest and give you guys some notice. Matt has decided to join Any Marine. For those unfamiliar, Any Marine is a branch-off of Any Soldier. It is similar to Soldiers Angels. The way it will work is, when Matt deploys, he will register his unit on the system, with their address, where they are, how many Marines are in the unit, and how long they’ll be gone. He’ll also have a blog of sorts on the site to keep people informed of what’s going on and what they need. You guys, along with anyone else who wants to, can “adopt” his unit and send letters and care packages to show your support. You’ll not only be helping Matt and I out, but showing support to other Marines as well. Everything sent over there is shared and equally distributed; Matt is simply the point-of-contact. I’m hoping some of you would be willing to help us out in this; it would mean a lot to them. And, hey, you don’t even necessarily need to wait — if you are interested, you can head over and adopt a unit now!

So, that is pretty much the question I’m posing in this post. Would any of you guys be interested in this? If so, let me know in the comments and when the time comes, I’ll let you all know and post the link to Matt’s page so you guys can adopt his unit. The way we’re looking at it is, sometimes, life throws you curveballs and we just want to make it as positive an experience as we can. How better than by helping out some deployed Marines?