To the Military Spouses Making it Work

Last night, after I’d read the first half of the same two board books over and over to the twins and settled them in their cribs, I laced up my running shoes and ran out into the hot night. Dusk was collecting beneath the blackberry bushes and clusters of fireflies were testing their flashers in the tree line. Even the breeze, frothing up the treetops, felt like the opening of an oven on my face. I made it all the way around the lake before the path disappeared in the dark.

David had just finished reading Little House on the Prairie with the big kids when I got back with a handful of blackberries to share. Our oldest was leaning up against David, and our middle girl was asleep under a blanket.

Hard day, good day, great day, hard day. A friend said her mom takes her kids every Friday night so she and her husband can get a break. I don’t know how that makes me feel. We are a military family. And like all military families living far from home, missing loved ones, we cannot relate. 

He called me from Trader Joe’s this afternoon. “What’s this on the list—‘Lizzy’s favorite flower crackers’?” I described the package. It’s so romantic to me—he got home a little later with all the grocery bags. The big kids were watching a show downstairs and the twins were napping, so we drank coffee, put away groceries, and accidentally ate all the salsa we only meant to sample. We talked about some geo-political article I read, and about how many people thanked him for his service while he was shopping in his OCPs. 

Here is home. Here is family. Wherever we are together. 

It seems so obvious on days like this. I knew I would move with him anywhere when we were apart during Basic Military Training, writing letters every day. I knew he would read all the best books to our kids when he brought a copy of The Hobbit on a mountain hike while we were still in college. I knew from the beginning. Our life together would be hard and good and thrilling. I wasn’t wrong. 

This is my appreciation post for military spouses everywhere. Making life beautiful wherever they are sent. Loving hard. Hanging on tight.