I am an author, an Army wife, a trained educator, and the mother of two small children. We are currently working through our third deployment and our fifth extended separation. Although I knew my children were struggling, it wasn’t until I wrote my first book, The Day After He Left for Iraq, that I started to understand the importance of feeling validated in your own story. Our children also need the chance to hear that their story is important and allowed. I am proud of "A Heart Apart". Creating it and using it with my own children has allowed them to open the dialogue and helped them to write, paint, or even upload their emotions. I can only hope it will do the same for yours.

I am an Army veteran, Army wife, and the mother of two young children. I have a degree in psychology. We, as a military family, have faced three deployments in five years and numerous separations. As a military community, we have things in place for our kids but nothing for them to see themselves in, nothing that they can hold and look at on their own terms, when they need it. A Heart Apart gives them something to see themselves in and it gives them hope for an end to the deployment or separation. A Heart Apart is a great tool that my kids love and it has helped us talk about them and their feelings. They can and do return to it over and over to feel the closeness with their loved one. I would love if it could do the same for your kids.