Military Mamas do Laundry a bit different.

I am not a writer. At least nMilitary Momsot in the last 10 years. I have been known to write a thing or two in high school that caught the attention of my teachers. My relationship with my husband started over a letter. But this is not something I do often. So bare with me.

When he is not home, food I love just doesn’t taste the same. The bed isn’t as comfy and the house never feels like home.

I am a military wife.

I am a military wife. I know lonely. I know struggle and I know strength. I try to be a planner as much as I can, but the military life doesn’t allow for that much. Now, my family has never had to endure an overseas deployment, and I am beyond grateful for that.

My husband drills once a month. He has command of unit. He works for the ARMY ROTC at LSU and is constantly gone for drill or training. The amount of times we have had to say goodbye in our relationship is A LOT. The amount of times my kids have said, “Daddy left again?” is ever more. The amount of times that he has not been at the dinner table with us is the same number. A LOT. The amount of times I wash his uniform… after a week or a month in the field training is again, a lot. The reunions are always the best part though. Nothing melts my heart more than when I hear them scream, “Daddy” as they run toward him.Military Moms

He goes on and off active duty orders. Before we got married he did all of his deployments over seas. Before we had a family. While I did not have to endure the pain and the fear of the unknown during a deployment, I can promise you I have felt some of the effects. You can’t go overseas and do what my husband did, and hear the stories he has and the ones he won’t dare tell me….and think that someone can come home the same as they left. While I believe God has his hand on my husband, and protected him multiple times while in the line of fire…I still fear that moment. Even now.

I have held the piece of medal in my very hands. The piece of the dumpster that exploded right in front of my husband. A child approached him and told him there was a bomb in the dumpster. He and his men had to assess the situation and take care of that, if it was true. The closer they walked to it the more my husband felt uneasy. He told his men to stand back and just like that…boom. Metal flew all over, my husband who SHOULD NOT be here– is. And he brought home a piece of the dumpster to prove it. Let me tell you, that little piece of medal is heavy. So heavy. As are my fears.

Every time I see that uniform in the laundry basket, I thank God he is here. That he is safe, that he is home and that he is not over seas. I am so grateful for that pile of dirty laundry. And those heavy boots that track mud into the house.

Military Moms

His job brought us to Baton Rouge and I am desperately trying to make this place feel like home. I’ve never lived near our family and I don’t know what it is like to take the kids to see their grandparents for the weekend or ask my sister for a play date. But the laundry here has his uniform in it, so I try not to complain.

When I watch the news. I can barely take it. The evil that exists is real. It breaks my heart. I wonder what my husband thinks as he watches what he fought for and the peace and stability he tried to bring to these countries fall aside… as evil takes over again.

Military MomsOur soldiers fight for freedom. They believe in freedom. Their wives teach their children that everyone deserves freedom and it is something that their daddy stands for. My struggle now is always this: If things continue as they are then the day will come when Daddy has to go again. When I will wash his uniform one more time before we have to say goodbye for a bit. So every time I wash that uniform…I thank God for his safety, for our children’s safety and for his future safety.

I am here to say, as an Army wife, that life after a deployment is hard too. There is always a fear of what is to come. Living away from a post/base is even harder, while you don’t have the support of neighborhood mamas going through the same thing. Then you have to move to a new place. Make new friends, kids have to try a new school. My kids keep asking to go back to our “old house” and I just can’t come up with a good enough reason to explain to them we just can’t. My heart is still there as well.

Military MomsAs a mom what is my job? What is our job as we watch the news and then tuck our children into bed at night? My job is to pray. Pray for our nation, pray for our leaders, pray for those people that are living in fear. Let us not forget on our Saturday at the water park…that there is a mom somewhere who is alone with her kids because her husband gave the ultimate sacrifice. Don’t forget as you give your children baths at night, that there are children who are asking their mom when their Daddy is coming home, again. Don’t forget as you sleep through the night, there are soldiers somewhere who wake up to the sound of gun fire. Don’t forget that when most others run away from it, there are men in uniform running toward it.

Pray for every soldier that wears a uniform in the name of our Freedom! And don’t forget behind that soldier, there is a family. And when the orders come and Uncle Sam says “Go,” there are willing men and women out there, ready to leave what is most precious to them, to fight for you and I in the name of Freedom.

If you are a military mom, then let me just say thank you! You are doing an amazing job keeping it all together. It is not in vain, your children see you as a rock that can’t be shaken. And if your spouse is deployed, then my family thanks you and your kids for your sacrifice! Let us not take any of you for granted!

Mom’s everywhere do laundry. But military moms just see it a bit different.