I tucked my son in tonight. He cried. I cried. It's become a regular thing, this crying at bedtime. With Daddy deployed, there are a hundred reasons to shed a tear during lights out. Mix in being tired, overstimulated, coming down off of that too-many-cookies-for-dessert sugar high and you have a meltdown cocktail. And that's just me. My poor son has his own problems.

I don't think many people think about military families on an everyday basis, and what we go through during deployment. It’s truly a difficult experience. Our loved ones are thousands of miles away serving in the military to protect the way of life we have all become so accustomed to.

It’s so easy to take this life for granted, to forget, to complain. Just once in your day, could you do me a favor? Could you stop and imagine bedtime at my house, and the houses of thousands of other families like ours all across the country? Could you say a prayer for us?

Tasha Lehman is a mother of three boys living in Vermont. Her husband, Matt, is a first lieutenant in the Vermont Air National Guard who recently headed overseas for his first deployment. The “Home Front: Diaries from a Vermont military family” series chronicles their journey. Read more about their story in February’s “Use Your Words” essay.