A little more than a year ago I had my son—my first child. Not only did I become a mother the moment he was born, he became a military child. I became the parent of a military child.
It isn’t always something you think about, but when the reality of your situation in a military family comes to the forefront of your daily life, it’s hard to ignore.
Since about 2009, I’ve had problems with my gallbladder. It would ache occasionally and I knew I had gallstones. However, like many people, it didn’t bother me very often and I carried on with life.
I knew it would eventually need to be removed, but I also knew that some people had negative side effects afterwards and it swayed me enough to put it off.
Fast forward to about one month after I had my son last year.
As this new year begins, my husband and I are about to celebrate the 13th anniversary of when we started dating. I sometimes can’t believe I’ve spent almost half of my life with him already, but something even more surprising is how much life we’ve gone through these last 13 years: separations, deployments, multiple PCSes, parenthood, struggles, and successes.
It’s hard to believe 2016 is about to come to a close, but it was a year of great change, full of ups and downs for my family. I don’t know if I ever imagined things being the way they are at this stage in my life, especially as I approach the big 3-0, but I sure am grateful for the many experiences I’ve had and the many blessings in my life.
About two months have passed since we moved to Illinois. Things are finally starting to settle down, and we’re getting into a daily routine, which is pretty easy to do when you have an almost 10-month-old who needs naps to keep from being a grouch.
This month I am saying a big “hello” to everyone from the land of Lincoln, AKA Illinois, on our new adventure.
We moved here at the end of September. So far, things are going well, although living on an Air Force base has been a big adjustment. For one, it is about five times smaller than Joint Base Lewis McChord (maybe even more)! There is probably two miles between the main gate and the gate at the end of the base. There is only one shoppette, which also triples as the Class Six and Firestone. The BX and the commissary share a parking lot, and in general, it’s just tiny!
Mission: Milspouse is a
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EIN Number: 88-1604492
hello@missionmilspouse.org
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El Paso, TX 79904