Most of you that know me, know that I have always liked to stick out a little. I have never enjoyed being behind the scenes making the lights and curtains move....No no no! I am the one on the stage tap dancing when I have never taken a single lesson!! I am laughing at myself for I don't care who is thinking that I look like a complete dork; because not only are they thinking it but so am I! But I didn't care, I was just laughing and having fun. Yeah....so who would have ever thought that putting me in a new environment would put a damper on my dancin style! But it did, it was difficult to adapt to a new area and put all my worries aside and start a new life. The military offers a tough lifestyle. You have to be resilient and quick on your feet. Flexibility should be in a contract you have to sign and while "Be patience and love always" may have been in your vows, those theories are being tested to their stretching points. You deal with your spouse being gone months at a time, long hours in training exercises, and oh my the moves!!! Did you know that President Eisenhower and his wife moved thirty five times in his thirty seven years in the service? Jiminy Crickets!! And as if that all wasn't enough, although you get stretched to the limit with the silent demands of being army wife, you are also expected to bounce back like a rubber band, showing no tension or weakness. For the first few months moving here, I felt as if everything had to be perfect. I had to always look my best, cook my husband meals every night to bring to the hospital and not only feed him but the entire laboratory, and show up to participate in every meeting ever held. I was quite the busy bee!! And Exhausted at that! One day, in all the madness of rushing to the ACS building afraid of being late to a meeting, running from my car and praying not to trip in my heels I was wearing, I stopped and looked around me at those new army wives doing the same things I was. I opened my eyes up to something I never saw before. Once I took a look around me, not only was I feeling like my neon sign was BRIGHT orange today, but there were military wives all around me who thought their neon sign colors were green...and yellow...and pink!! At that moment, I promised myself that I was going to TRY and stop trying to be Mrs. Cleaver(although this persona still gets the best of me at times....) and learn to just try to be the best wife I could be to Julian, and not a wife to the whole Army itself. Although I still cook dinners for Julian and bring them to the hospital...I have learned to relax and become the unexperienced tap dancer again, and ENJOY IT!
Ok....so back to the wives I met earlier......over time I developed a friendship with many of these women. I became a "velcro" aunt to their children. I fell in love with them all and treated them as if they were a part of my own family.
Now as I am lying in my own bed with my husband at 10:40 at night, a new thought dawned on me. The military is tough yes. But, if you are willing to allow it to, it can provide you with a "military family." My military family only consists of about 15 families or so...(maybe more, its late now and my counting isn't up to par...) but they all know each other, know each others strengths and weaknesses. We help hold each other up and share in each others great and joyous moments. They disappoint you at times, you drive them crazy at times. But when push comes to shove, they are always there for you. They know what you are going through when your own family maybe doesn't, because they have never experienced what we have. And Sadly, when the time comes, part of our family will leave to another duty station. But just as our family back home, you never forget about them, you keep in touch and plan vacations to see each other from time to time. Soon enough, you have family, not just all over the country, but all over the world! Military life may be tough, but it teaches you lessons that you don't always get to learn in a civilian life. Just in the short months that I have been an Army Wife, I have grown and changed so much. I have learned things about myself I never knew. I have learned about my own inner strength and the strength of our Lord. I have learned to lean on Him more than I ever have. I love my life as a military wife, and I LOVE my new military family.
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