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Deployment

There may be no better time for empowerment than when faced with a looming deployment or when you are in the thick of one.

Join our Mission: Milspouse team as we share all our tips, lessons learned, best practices for coping, and our hearts in solidarity with you in all things deployment. Whether you are preparing for your first one or you navigating your 7th, we have the resources you need to thrive in one of the most challenging aspects of milspouse life.

Our resources span the gamut: From that first moment when your service member says “I’ve got news,” to establishing a battle rhythm in those first few weeks, to parenting solo, and to reintegrating after that homecoming kiss… We have resources to guide you every step of the way. We are raw, vulnerable, experienced, and ready to support you through this season!

A Homecoming We’ll Never Forget

by | Dec 1, 2019 | , ,

I held him tight.

I thought perhaps the tighter and longer I held him, it would create muscle memory for me to run to when I needed it for next nine months of separation.

I tried to stay in the moment, but my eyes landed on families, children, husbands, and wives all around me wiping tears and giving their service member a last hug goodbye.

Saying “see ya later” at the deployment send-offs are simply the worst. It’s another “hurry up and wait” occasion that we as military families have become all too familiar with; however, this particular hurry-up-and-wait is brutal. Like pulling a band aid off, please make it quick and easy and as painless as possible.

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How You Can Support Military Families: Holiday Edition

by | Nov 18, 2019 | , ,

Over the last almost 10 years, I’ve been working in senior living communities. Most of my days are spent connecting with those who have lived 80 years or more. Ever since my first holiday season working with seniors, I’ve observed that there are two sides of their holiday coin.

On one hand, you have tremendous joy and gratitude—it’s a season of giving!

On the other, you have grief and longing.

In most of their long lives, they’ve had tremendous joy alongside tremendous hardship. I only began to understand these two sides as I experienced my own hardship while my soldier husband, James, was away on his first deployment.

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Little People, Big Emotions

by | Oct 3, 2019 | , , ,

There I was, that mom with a screaming toddler on the floor of Chipotle. My blood pressure began to rise, I started to feel my facial pores open up, and could feel my oversupply of milk leaking. There I was, with two small humans and no spouse.

There I was, feeling like a failure.

Being a mother to a toddler is full of amazing firsts, a lot of joy, and a heart filled with love. It can also bring about challenging times. On top of those challenging times, let’s add in a new baby sister to the mix and a deployed dad. As a mother, you start to see these big emotions come through in your child—you want to help, but don’t know how. That night at Chipotle, I knew something had to change or it was going to be a long deployment.

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525,600 Minutes: A Season of Deployment

by | Sep 8, 2019 | , ,

How do we measure a year? A good question, and one that is front and center on my brain tonight.

It is Deployment Eve…

…one of the hardest nights for military families.

I can’t sleep.

The house is littered with duffle bags, packing lists, and emotional land mines as we face the 525,600 minutes that lie ahead.

It is assuredly not our first year apart, and as much as I would like to say that I have lost count, it would be a lie.

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The Lead-Up to Welcome Home

by | Jan 21, 2019 | ,

If you’ve had a loved one deployed, then you probably know that the first and last weeks of deployment usually feel the longest. There’s so much to do, and the days drag by slowly. To help you out, I’ve compiled a list of must-dos during that last painful week. You’re welcome in advance!

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5 Books to Help Kids With Deployment

by | Jan 17, 2019 | ,

Deployment is hard for most family members, but especially your kids. Military life comes with many challenges: changing schools, moving from place to place, saying goodbye to everyone they know, and starting over. These make being a military kid harder to deal with. It isn’t something they decided for themselves—it was chosen for them. As the parent, we have to teach our children how to deal with this type of stress. But the most stressful and hardest moment for most family members is deployment—especially for children. Fortunately, there are many books great for reading to children that can help with understanding and coping with deployment.

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