Parents, how do you get through deployment while being separated from your children?

It so much easier to keep in contact now than it was in the beginning of the war, depending on where you are located. In the beginning, mail was slow, the satellite phone only came around every few weeks, and there was no Internet (and when there was, it was always unreliable and definitely not fast enough for more than email and IM). Now, there is Skype, Facebook, Twitter, reliable call centers and mail systems, and sometimes even cell phones. You have to remember to use these tools, which can be hard when the mission is in full swing, but they definitely help to make the time away not as bad. I would recommend still writing letters, though. It gives the kids something to look forward to, or it is a pleasant surprise when they get a letter. Besides, it is something they can pull out and read whenever they wish, something tangible.