This is such a hard one. I'm proud to be the first college graduate in my family, and proud of my husband and my children but I think the one thing I'm most proud of is being an Army wife. I know that sounds corny but man, is it a hard job! Before our daughter was born my husband and I considered having him join the military but I said I wasn't strong enough. I didn't think I could move around the world at a moments notice, be away from friends and family and most of all I couldn't deal with the deployments. After our daughter was born I just couldn't see working the 60-70 hour weeks I had been working and him working nightshift while our daughter was being raised by someone else. So when our daughter was 5 months old he joined the Army, I became a SAHM and our life changed drastically. There are so many days when it's so hard because I can't see my mom (I'm a total momma's girl) or the rest of my family and friends. My kids are growing up without knowing much of anything or anyone from where they were born (well one of them... one was born in a military hospital in NC). People visit and we go home but it's not near the frequency as we'd like. So many holidays, birthdays, anniversaries he's missed and even the little things like our daughter's learning to walk or losing her first tooth. We're moving again next month for the 5th time in 7 years. My youngest daughter is 5 and will be attending her 5th school already, while the oldest is 7 and is on her 4th school. My husband is constantly gone, whether it's his 24 hour duties, weeks in the field, months away at school or the several deployments he's been on. It's scary and irritating not being able to "depend" on him for help at home. Of course I know it's not his fault and he'd much rather be home than wherever he is at the moment. But I learned that I am much stronger than I ever thought I was. I've learned to be adaptable, to make friends wherever we go, to take the good and bad from each situation and each duty station we're at. I've learned to believe in the power of prayer and I've learned that real love knows no distance, whether it's family back home, friends across town or friends online, or a husband halfway across the world. <3
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