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I didn’t want to look.
It was mid-Saturday morning, and I was supposed to be working on a sermon for church two Sundays away, but in a moment of final procrastination, I got on Facebook.
I shouldn’t have looked.
Some of my friends started sharing news stories about an “active shooter” in a local Walmart near our home here in El Paso and Fort Bliss.
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There are a lot of layers to military spouse life.
It’s kind of like an onion. (Or, as Donkey from the movie Shrek insists, it’s like a parfait. Which sounds delicious. But I digress.)
Seriously, so many layers. It isn’t like the romantic homecoming love stories in the movies. Sure, we have our moments, but real life military marriage requires a lot more than a long kiss that makes your toes curl.
Read moreYep, it’s true. Deployments are one of the hardest (and lamest!) parts of military spouse life.
But in true milspouse fashion, we don’t have time to wallow in the challenge. Sure, we can give ourselves permission to feel bummed out about it, but we just can’t park there for too long. After all, our kids need to be fed and stuff, so we have to actually do the things.
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Growing up is hard to do.
I’m not just talking about the awkward seasons of puberty (ugh!) or those painful moments of high school. It isn’t all about those puff paint shirts or the bird-nest bangs in every school picture.
Growing up as a military spouse is no easy task.
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Editor’s note: This post is sponsored by First Command Financial Services
It’s no secret… life is full of choices. Hot or iced? Spicy or mild? Original or extra crispy?
But as military spouses, not all of our choices are as straightforward as the food-focused options above. Sometimes we have to make decisions that can impact, well, everything.
Do we stay at our duty station during deployment or move home?
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For the most part, milspouse life is pretty great. There’s new adventures, great people, lessons to learn, places to see, things to do… But of course, it isn’t all roses, sunshine, and puppy dog tails. In my personal opinion, one of the most uncool parts of military life are those pesky see-ya-laters that crop up when facing a TDY or deployment.
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Newsflash: Things are always changing in military spouse life.
Okay, so maybe that doesn’t classify as “breaking news.” More like “Well, yeah… that’s no surprise.”
But since things are constantly changing at AWN, we want to try and stay contemporary, and thus we would like to introduce a fresh, shiny, new blog series called “Forward, March!”
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Well, my friends, in the musical words of Whitesnake: “Here I go again.” Yep. It’s almost deployment go-time. (Feel free to audibly boo and hiss with me.)
But, as with all challenges in military spouse life, there is good news. Although this will be our first deployment with two kids, this isn’t our first deployment rodeo (Whew!). Of course, my brain has been cranked at full speed the last few weeks as we get ready for departure, and as I was running the other day, I realized that all this prep was like training for a marathon.
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Can you feel the excitement in the air? It’s got more pop than fireworks on the 4th of July, and the anticipation rivals that going-to-bed-on-Christmas-Eve feeling.
That’s right, my friends. It’s back-to-school time! (Oh. Not everyone gets this excited? Weird.)
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