Engage. Educate. Encourage. EMPOWER.
Many things about milspouse life are AWNsome… but we admit, deployments usually aren’t one of them. Your AWN Command Team members have been there, done that (and might even be doing the deployment thing as we speak), so we want to make sure you have all the resources you need to thrive during what can be a challenging season of milspouse life. Click images below or keep reading for more from our blog.
My husband recently returned from a deployment. During that time I found myself enjoying a new schedule and a few new habits. At nigh,t after I put my two children to bed, if I didn’t have work to do, I would enjoy a cup of coffee, a not so healthy snack, and pick a movie that would inevitably make me cry.
It starts with a look—you know the look. The one that tells you to control your face and hold your heart. The look that says after this moment, things will change. That’s the look that I got tonight from my husband.
As a military spouse, I know this look all too well. It is the one that precedes big news. The news could be that we’re moving, that Chris is going away for training, or the big one—that he is about to deploy.
By the time you read this, my soldier will be home from a deployment.
It snuck up on us this time around. A few months ago they said he might go home early if they could find a replacement for him. There was a lot of “maybe this” and “maybe that.”
It dragged on for months. I’m used to that kind of Army talk.
Then all of a sudden he says, “Hey, I’m coming home in two weeks.”
“Got any Valentine’s Day plans?”
That simple question can evoke a range of reactions from women all over world, but to a milspouse with a loved one downrange, you may want to take a step back when asking.
Unfortunately, like New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day is often greeted with unrealistic expectations. If you have a love in your life, it is a day of plans and giddiness. If you are without your love, let’s just call you the Grinch That Stole Valentine’s Day.
But you don’t have to be!
Don’t let the title fool you, my husband isn’t really invisible. But I’m going to be completely honest here—it sure feels like it at so many points in this military life.
He’s a true superhero. He jets off right in the middle of a toddler meltdown to save the world. Who could be mad at that? People swoon over superheroes.
So why, at times, have I felt as though I spend more time with the bagger at Kroger than my own husband?
I just spent the last hour researching how to cook fish that you catch yourself. Like, fish out of a lake. Specifically, three rainbow trout and a large-mouth bass that we caught on a recent fishing trip with my son’s Cub Scout pack.
Have you ever been to a Cub Scout Trout-a-ree? Me neither.
At least, up to that point. When that excited little boy asked me if we were going fishing, I had to swallow a groan and then felt just a tinge of panic.
Quick regroup. Pull it together. Make a plan.
Realize I have no idea how to pull off a successful fishing trip.
“Letting you know… I’m deploying on Friday.”
This was the text I received one morning as I was getting ready to begin my day. My friend, Catherine, along with so many others, would be deploying somewhere overseas for who knows how long and doing who knows what.
Her text was one of many. By the end of the first week, I was on a roller coaster of “guess what?” I saw couples rushing to the PX to pick out wedding bands. Another friend of mine bought a very early birthday cake for her daughter. My little ones were coming home from school sharing their sadness with me, almost daily, about the news of yet another friend gone.
Deployments have a way of moving families around the globe.
We hear it all the time. “It’s only once a month! It’s not that big of a deal!”
Truth is, it really is a big deal. Because those weekends are the worst.
Those are the weekends that all the ballgames, family commitments, and kids getting sick will happen.
Those are the weekends when the kids will throw every ‘tude known to man both at you and at each other.
Those are the weekends that all Hades breaks loose everywhere. Oh! And something always breaks!
Those are the weekends you question yourself the most.
Our service members carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. Their burden is shared by us, the people who love them. The act of taking on this kind of stress is taxing. Our ability to live fully ourselves is more important than ever. But sometimes, we struggle.