The Reality of Life as a Military Wife

It's been a while since I last blogged. Not surprising though, like I warned in the beginning, I could only keep up the blogging for so long. But a lot has changed since the last time I blogged and it's one of my new goals to start blogging again. (More on that later.)

Zero day came this past week. A day I have been dreading ever since I started dating and then married a military man.

Before I married a Marine, I used to look at military spouses and the lifestyles they lead, and I thought it would be a pretty okay life for me...I considered myself pretty independent and strong. So I figured marrying a man who was away often and worked a lot wouldn't be too much of a stretch for me. I figured if all of these men and women before me could wait for their loved ones to come home from deployment and make it, I could too. I mean, I was never one to shy away from difficult situations and I was pretty good at standing up for myself and being on my own. 

What I never accounted for though, was the reality of life as a military spouse. I never considered the long hours that any service member works year round. Or the countless weeks of training that put them out in the field or on a base not close enough to home to be able to be around other than on weekends. Then there is the pre-deployment phase of weeks of "out to sea" periods with zero communication.

I'm just entering the actual deployment phase...so I can't tell you from personal experiences how it is just yet. But I do know the only amount of communication I can hope for over the next 8 months will mostly come in the form of emails and MAYBE a phone call once a month if I'm lucky. I can't allow myself to hope for more than that. 

That's probably the most difficult part to process though. Deployments always sounded rough...not getting to have your spouse around for months at a time. But I didn't realize just how limited communication is. Not getting to touch your spouse is hard. Not getting to hear his/her voice is that much harder. Not getting to talk to them period is sometimes unbearable. 

Becoming a military wife was never something I planned on. But I can definitely tell you that it has given me a whole new perspective. It has definitely made me appreciate my husband and treasure the moments I have with him. And I know it will make us and our marriage stronger when we've made it through this season of our life together.