I am not going to complain. My life so far has been relatively easy. Relatively. I had a sharpened sense of its relativity this week as word of an F-16 crash in Baghdad appeared in the news.
I am not going to complain. My life as a military wife has been great. There are days when I do realize the everyday sacrifice that my husband makes being in the USAF. But, in reality, most days it's just not that scary. While I consider it a blessing that Rob has never deployed for months on end, it is a mixed feeling sort of thing. Am I thankful and grateful that he's never deployed to a warzone? Yes. At the same time, I know that there are pangs felt that he hasn't. Not because he wants to be in war, but in a sense, it provides validation and accreditation for the things he has been training for for several years. Imagine going to college for ever and never doing what it is you're learning. OK, well some people do, but you know what I mean, right?
My life has also been easy because for the next three years or so, I know that my husband will not be deployed because of the capacity in which he will be working. He's going to be a pilot instructor, teaching students how to do what he's already done. This puts us in a position of ease, because it's unlikely he'll have to deploy.
I'm blessed. And today, I am recognizing it.
Before we moved here from Clovis, NM my husband was part of the 524th FS at Cannon AFB. It was shortly after we moved that his squadron was deployed to Iraq. Had we been in NM longer, he would have deployed.
Monday morning, Rob calls me from work and tells me that an F-16 went down in Baghdad. While there is a lot of military presence in the desert right now, the community, especially the F-16 community remains small. Well, how many squadrons are there, I ask. He tells me there are two squadrons that fly the block (model) that he flew. Shortly after that phone call, he called back saying that it was a Cannon jet (the squadron he was a part of), but not a Cannon pilot. Talking with a few of my friends back in NM whose husbands are still deployed I have heard the common comment, "I can't imagine never receiving the call from your husband telling you he's OK."
And there is that wife. And there are those five children. Those five children under the age of 8. It hasn't made me cry until just now when I typed those words. I have always believed in the power in the spoken word. Verbally expressing truth has always kept me honest. And in keeping me honest it has kept me humble.
I know that God will take care of that wife and mother and those kids. I know that God gives those people a way to make it. The most beautiful part is that God will use her in ways she can't even imagine at this point. He will use her in inexplicable and indescribable ways to further His Kingdom. I used to think that that was fluff speak, that it was what people said, pastors said, to make themselves feel like it would be OK. But life has shown that "fluff" to be true. I have seen it, and I know that God will carry this daughter of God to be the best she can be for the sake of her children.
I am not going to complain. My life as a military wife has been great. There are days when I do realize the everyday sacrifice that my husband makes being in the USAF. But, in reality, most days it's just not that scary. While I consider it a blessing that Rob has never deployed for months on end, it is a mixed feeling sort of thing. Am I thankful and grateful that he's never deployed to a warzone? Yes. At the same time, I know that there are pangs felt that he hasn't. Not because he wants to be in war, but in a sense, it provides validation and accreditation for the things he has been training for for several years. Imagine going to college for ever and never doing what it is you're learning. OK, well some people do, but you know what I mean, right?
My life has also been easy because for the next three years or so, I know that my husband will not be deployed because of the capacity in which he will be working. He's going to be a pilot instructor, teaching students how to do what he's already done. This puts us in a position of ease, because it's unlikely he'll have to deploy.
I'm blessed. And today, I am recognizing it.
Before we moved here from Clovis, NM my husband was part of the 524th FS at Cannon AFB. It was shortly after we moved that his squadron was deployed to Iraq. Had we been in NM longer, he would have deployed.
Monday morning, Rob calls me from work and tells me that an F-16 went down in Baghdad. While there is a lot of military presence in the desert right now, the community, especially the F-16 community remains small. Well, how many squadrons are there, I ask. He tells me there are two squadrons that fly the block (model) that he flew. Shortly after that phone call, he called back saying that it was a Cannon jet (the squadron he was a part of), but not a Cannon pilot. Talking with a few of my friends back in NM whose husbands are still deployed I have heard the common comment, "I can't imagine never receiving the call from your husband telling you he's OK."
And there is that wife. And there are those five children. Those five children under the age of 8. It hasn't made me cry until just now when I typed those words. I have always believed in the power in the spoken word. Verbally expressing truth has always kept me honest. And in keeping me honest it has kept me humble.
I know that God will take care of that wife and mother and those kids. I know that God gives those people a way to make it. The most beautiful part is that God will use her in ways she can't even imagine at this point. He will use her in inexplicable and indescribable ways to further His Kingdom. I used to think that that was fluff speak, that it was what people said, pastors said, to make themselves feel like it would be OK. But life has shown that "fluff" to be true. I have seen it, and I know that God will carry this daughter of God to be the best she can be for the sake of her children.
Please continue to pray for this family.
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