Seeing What You Have

Things are going well for our little family. My hubby has just found out that he's getting promoted...YEAH!...and our babies are growing like weeds. We have had our share of trials recently, but I see a light at the end of this current tunnel.

I follow several military wife facebook pages for our base. Some are for general info, some are for "feel good" comments, but one in particular seems to hold my interest. It's a little like the "real military wives of..." insert our current location. There are anonymous posts about who they know that's doing this or that...posts about how their marriages and family lives are going...and posts about general military questions.

I like being able to give advice. I like seeing that people can be honest and say that not everything is sunny in "paradise". But, then you see the posts about people who got fortunate enough to be stationed in the same city...state...tri-state area...as their family.

They complain about how their family member didn't watch their child so they could do this....or they wouldn't come to their child's important event....

Honestly, I don't feel bad! At no time since I have married my soldier have we been close enough to any of our family to invite them to a birthday party or just go on over to their house because we felt like not being alone that day. We had to tell my in-laws months in advance that we didn't have anybody who could watch our boys while I was in labor with their sister....MONTHS in advance, not weeks or days.

So, here's my comment....You don't know what we would give to be able to have family that was near us! I want our kids to know their family, but so far it's because we have made sure that they see both sides at least once a year...meaning we pack our car and our kids, stop our mail, my husband has to take leave for almost 3 weeks, and we drive! We drive for 36 hours and sometimes more depending on which family we are visiting. And then we drive some more because people have this annoying habit of not wanting to put forth any effort to meet you where it's convienient for you, even though you just made a HUGE trip just to be close enough to even see them before having to meet them at the inconvienient location they picked.

See what you have right next to you! If you get stationed even 8 hours from your family, count your blessings...you could have to drive 36 hours with three kids under 3 and dog! Just a little food for thought.