Reunited troops, families face stresses of reconnecting

FORT HOOD, Texas – Jesse "Jay" Collins didn't expect to be home for Christmas this year. He thought he would spend the holidays in Iraq, far from his wife and kids.

Then weeks ago, he packed up as part of the last sustainment brigade in Iraq and headed back to theUSA, to resume the life he'd left behind 10 months before.

He and his wife know it won't be quite the same. His family is forever changed.

Now that the war is over, Collins and thousands of other soldiers are home, with visions of holidays and reunited families — and no new deployments looming on the horizon. Whether they make it to "happily ever after" depends in large part on how well they reconnect with family in the short-term as well as the long haul.

By Sharon Jayson

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/story/2011-12-20/Reunited-troops-families-face-stresses-of-reconnecting/52119966/1