MilSpouse Life
It wasn’t good news.
“My husband’s leaving tomorrow,” she said. She just got word from her husband that he would be deploying within the next 24 hours. There was no notice. There was no quality family time with the kids at the park. It was simply pack your bags and leave.
Gulp.
She explained further, “It’s sad, you know? These were supposed to be the weeks the kids and I got to savor with him before he deployed for the summer. This goodbye is going to be so abrupt and that’s hard.”
I sat there looking at her empathetically. I was trying to be a good friend, but honestly, I suck during times like these. I never know what to say. My mouth kinda just hung open while I was trying to say something really awesome or even profound. It didn’t come to me quickly enough.
And then she said something I’ll never forget.
“It’ll be okay though. We are a strong family and there are other people in the world who need him more than us right now. We always find a way to make it work”
That was the moment I knew the kind of person I was looking at—a resilient military spouse.
1. She appreciates her purpose as a military spouse and finds meaning in that role.
2. She is selfless in the moments she should really be the most selfish.
3. She looks to her friends to listen and offer support, even when they sit there—mouth wide-open—with nothing profound to offer outside of a listening ear.
4. She remembers that like every other deployment, she will get through this.
5. She not only presses forward through the troubles, but celebrates even the small wins.
6. She quickly adapts to circumstances and finds a way to “make it work.”
7. She calls her mom when she needs a good cry and that’s okay.
8. She loves her husband even when his job puts the family through a lot.
9. She allows military life to make her a stronger person, even when it tries to break her down.
10. She just gets it.
She gets that sometimes in life the receiving is in the giving. She gets that being married to a man serving his country sometimes means you have to be a spouse who serves her kids, husband, and family, even when it’s hard to make that selfless sacrifice. She gets that when being a military wife is hard, it’s still worth pushing through. She gets that finding happiness in the craziest adventures is the only way to go.
She just gets it.
I adore her for it.
And someday when I grow up, I want to be a military spouse just like her.
For now, I’ll just keep trying.
Want more on military life?
- 9 Relationship Truths Only a Modern Military Spouse Would Understand
- The One Thing You Miss Most During Deployment
- What Military Marriage Really Looks Like
- I’m Terrible at Being a Military Spouse
This is so nice! Military spouses are so strong, wether they are ready to be or not! My husband frequently talks about how strong I was to go through the birth of our son without him.. He always says that people often respond with “I don’t think I could do that!” when he tells them the story. I am certainly not the first to go through labor and raising a newborn alone, nor will I be the last. I’m so thankful there are so many strong, supportive women (& men) out there that support their military spouses!
My friend, who is now my fiance met January 2019, early one morning he appeared on my phone through a chat line, its now been 0ne year and three months, we are still chatting, we video chat when he can, we have talked marraige several times, he states how he cant wait to get home to be with me, but sometimes i feel as though our conversations are repeated, say the same things to each other over and over everyday. Do you have any conversation tips to share to spark our conversations to keep them interesting, alive (so to speak), anything that you can share with me. I love him very much, he is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life. I dont want him to get bored with me. I will wait for him into eternity. I do google things daily, thats how i was able to contact with you. Please and thank you for your HELP.
My husband is in AIT right now and when he lets me know they’re doing field exercises for the next few days and not to expect much communication, I’m honestly more jealous of the cool stuff he’s doing than sad about missing him.
If/when he actually deploys somewhere cool, that jealousy is really gonna amp up, lol.