Making it in the MilLife

I am skeptical about awards. My husband, an army guy, jokes that they get medals for making a bed right. (And yet, he would not get an award in our house. Sorry, babe. )

But every once in a while you meet someone who does something wonderfully unforgettable, and when awards like the Presidential Citizens Medal come around, it’s our duty to highlight our everyday heroes – especially those in the military community who don’t wear a uniform. Milspouses like you and those that support our troops at home.

One of my heroes is a friend who saved me one day during a deployment. I woke up to an ant infestation, my 6 year old son making his own birthday brownies for school and a pipe spewing water all over my basement. My other girlfriend was headed my way to drop off her baby so she could prepare for her husband’s Officer Candidate School graduation, and my baby had yet to be fed. I was overwhelmed. I called Leigh.

It was her only day off from her demanding job with a super secret government agency-that-shall-not-be-named. She had purchased a home and had her second baby during the deployment. She had her hands full, but when I called, crying, she came over, dealt with my landlord, cleaned out my cupboards and took me and our brood of children for a walk. It was probably something, that, under normal circumstances, would have been annoying, but not tear-inducing. But that is what deployments do to you. Sometimes all the frustrations come out at once.

She was a friend when I needed it. She continued to be a source of support and inspiration to me, because she seemingly did it all. She was a mom, a military spouse and she was serving her country as well as a civilian. These are the people that sustain our communities.

If you know someone who makes a difference in your world and community consider nominating them today.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/citizensmedal

My family loves Survivor. It’s one of the few shows that me, my husband and our two sons, who are six and 11, can all watch together. This season was called Heroes vs. Villains. It pitted the most notorious and loved cast members against each other. One villain was a military spouse named Sandra who had already won the game in 2003. She was back at it for season 20 with a husband in Afghanistan and two kids at home. She wore his cap proudly as she schemed and laid low trying to oust the biggest Survivor villain in history, Russell. She didn’t succeed in getting him out, but she did even better by beating him at his own game and winning the entire show. She is the first contestant ever to win twice.

Okay, so it’s a game show and reality television to boot. But I think it’s interesting that a military spouse named Sandra holds this innocuous piece of history, because I just wrote about another incredible milspouse named Sandra last week.

I think that military spouses ARE survivors. They find a way to make it work against all challenges. Survivor is a game, but watching this show for the past five years, I think it does reflect life a little. People play their true characters; when money is on the line will you lie? Be loyal? Make friends? Make enemies? Sandra did all of the above and she won. What I admire is that despite her wining a $1 million in 2003, when she joined the cast of Survivor Heroes vs. Villains she was working as a bank teller and her husband was still serving in the Army. Why was I surprised? Because I think many of us would quit our jobs if we won a $1 million!

“Maybe he’s a patriot,” my husband said when I made the comment.  Indeed!

If you won a million would your family leave the service?