My Life As An Army Wife

           I'm just going to start off by saying I am so ready for some WARM and SUNNY weather! The last few months have been so nasty which make my attitude and view on life somehow not the best in the world as well. I told someone the other day, the last few months I have felt so blah. I don't know what the deal has been. Blake and I had stayed up here at Fort Rucker, more than we normally do and as silly as it sounds I have been getting a little homesick. You see the one thing about Fort Rucker and flight school that I have came to love the LEAST is that the people come through here so fast and stay so busy that before you know it they are leaving , heading to their next duty station and you don't ever really get a chance to say goodbye. For many this is normal to them and a way of life that they find adventurous and exciting, for a born and raised southern girl who loves people, friendships and relationships this way of life at first seem straight up depressing and lonely. To make friends only to know you will have to leave them and to form relationships only to know it may only last a few months, weeks or days has honestly been a hard concept for me to accept. If I were to be honest, it all has been a little overwhelming and has caused me to stand off more than I normally would. Why make all these friends just for them to have to leave? Well, as always God teaches us things and if I can say anything about 2011-2013 they have been years of learning! You see God has stretched me and made me get out of my comfort zone. I  have never realized I really had a "comfort zone" so to speak. I get along with almost anyone and I would consider myself comfortable in my own skin, all except when it came to one thing, and that was when it came to military things. I will never know what my hang up was and why I was so nervous about living around a military post or even driving on post. It honestly is the craziest thing. Please don't misunderstand me, I have always had a love and strong support for our service men and women but to be a part of them and living in the middle of it all was a little intimidating. It may have to do with the fact that I had never been around military that much and I had always heard the stereo type things like how hard of a lifestyle it was or how hard nose some people could be, partly because they had actually seen so much bad. I want to make it clear how terribly WRONG my thinking was! I still don't know who ingrained that thinking in me and where it came from. 

        Blake and I moved up here and I was so nervous to go anywhere on post, I thought if I went 1 mile over the speed limit they were going to pull me over and yell at me and take my driving privileges away. While I have heard this could happen it is honestly VERY rare. I was nervous about the people we would be around and worried we would never make any good Christian friends. I was worried Blake may not have a ton of friends because he doesn't drink and party. I was worried we weren't ever going to find a church to attend up here; with all this worrying, no wonder I developed an autoimmune problem! These thoughts were not of God and they were not accurate at all!

          We lived in a small apartment and welcomed our new addition, Hawk (our boxer) into our family as soon as we moved here. Although potty training was the pits, getting him was one of the best things we could have done. I was able to stay busy and occupy some of my time since my health started off so sketchy when we moved; now Hawk and Weatherby (our Bichon) have really been a woman's best friend =)  When we finally got somewhat settled and my health improved I signed up for bootcamp  it was full but I soon got a call from the trainer that they had a space opened up, I was so excited! At this point we had been here for probably 5 months and I really didn't have many friends. (pathetic, I know and not like me at all). I went at 6:30 every morning and ran, rucked, crawled, got muddy and had a blast while burning tons of calories with a fine group of ladies and an awesome trainer. I'm sure Kris will never know how much that phone call meant to me and neither did I at the time but looking back I formed some of the sweetest friendships and it was so nice to even just talk to other girls, most of which were flight school wives just like me. When bootcamp ended I even worked at the gym here on post some, teaching classes and working with an amazing group of ladies. Sadly, life got too busy and I soon had to stop, building the house in Mobile and everything else going on was just too much all at one time; however I do believe although I was teaching classes, I learned more from the wonderful people that came to class and the awesome group of people I worked with than I could ever have imagined!

            I  don't really know why I ever worried about Blake making friends, he has a ton of friends up here. He is such a great guy and he really had an awesome class to start with. I love the guys and girls he had in his class and they were so much fun! They were not what I pictured at all and they honestly respected our beliefs and choices more than many of our friends at home do. Although almost all of them have moved already, they still text and call Blake all the time. I remember when I saw the unity and family from the life of military when we moved from our apartment into a house on post. All these guys and one of the wives that we hardly knew at the time showed up in the rain to help us move. They loaded their cars and made trips back and forth with our stuff. The pizza I had for them was nothing compared to what a help they were, and I can never repay them for that. Although people move from place to place I learned that I no longer look at it as if they are "leaving", I simply look at it like we have friends all over the world now, and could almost see friends on every vacation we take! Thank goodness for social media, that helps us all stay connected. 

          We finally found an amazing church that I am so thankful for. The atmosphere is just like a family, the worship music and time is great and the sermons are always something I need to hear. Blake and I have now joined a marriage small group and it's so awesome how God works. Most of the group is military as well and our group leader is a chinook IP so Blake got to fly with him the other night. Our first meeting with our group was amazing, we answered questions about ourselves and our marriage that for some reason Blake and I had not really talked about, nothing serious yet, just sweet things. I'm so excited about this group and so sad at the same time because we won't get to go through the entire study with them.

          Blake came up here to go through the Black Hawk course for the Mobile/Montgomery NG Unit. Well... a little while after being here he received a call that they were going to have to switch him to the Birmingham NG Unit to fly Chinooks. The reason being there is a deployment coming up and they have to take so many LT's. Let me just say this little Army wife was not a happy camper. I knew people in his other unit, they had just gotten back from a deployment so it would be a while before they went back and it was in Mobile.. Why on earth would they switch him? Not to mention there was a guy behind him that was from Birmingham that could take this spot...I'll never forget the first time Blake really mentioned the big "D" word (deployment), huge tears came to my eyes and I just could not understand what was going on! Yes, I knew he was in the Army when I married him but I was in denial about the fact he may ever have to leave! So here I am again with a choice, to trust or not to trust, to love and live or to live in fear and worry, to have faith that I serve a mighty God who knows our future and has a our very life in his hands no matter where in this world we are, or to allow Satan to pull me down and fill me with doubt... I often ask God "when will things ever get back to "normal" or calm down". Do you ever just feel like you can't get a break? Well I am one friend that understands! While I can question God all I want, I know He has the answer and my human mind can not understand what He is putting together. So I decide once more to trust, to love and live while placing my fears and worries in Gods hands and I dig in the word a little more to build up my faith that I serve a mighty God who will not fail me! 
          I also believe God has used other army wives to teach me a thing or thousand. I want to first say that these army wives (not me) but the ones who have been through it all, are the real deal! I am amazed by their strength. Here I am complaining about the "thought" of a 9 month deployment and yes, praying against it, that he won't go; and they have had children while their husbands were deployed  for 14 months. Not just one deployment but multiple deployments, and not just one kid but multiple kids! They have traveled the world and left their families and instead of complaining about it, they offer comfort to me. (which makes me feel like such a wimp!) I still have so much to learn but I am honestly so thankful God has given us this opportunity while we have been here at Fort Rucker. Not to mention these women are like turbo women and moms, with all their babies! It's inspiring and I love that they love their husbands and  families so much. I love how many women in the military have tons of children! I said the entire time while we were at Rucker that I needed a kid to fit in because there seemed to be a double stroller every 100 feet around this place!!

           Things are winding down for flight school (so we think, but then again it is the Army and anything is possible lol) Blake is flying nights right now and he has excelled in everything! I am honestly so proud of him and all that he has accomplished and stood for. He has not lowered his standards and while he worries he put flight school too high on his priority list, I have never seen it because he has been attentive and faithful to me. He has remained a spiritual leader and I could not ask for anything more. He has been a gift to me and I'm just so blessed to be a part of this adventure. He has two more weeks of flying nights and is scheduled to graduate very soon. I can't imagine how excited he will be when that day finally gets here! I have no clue what the future holds for Blake and I but I just have a good, positive feeling about what God is doing in our lives! I stopped trying to plan so much and now let God take care of my life calendar, although I would like to think that in a couple of years he will have parenting humans and not just our dogs in store for us! Rather it be our biological child or a child that needs a mommy and daddy from the states/another country or God willing both biological and adopted;however He sees fit, God knows the desire of our hearts and really only He knows all of those details and the plan. Blake and I have learned so much about each other as we have had to try to figure life out (which is not possible by the way). We have had a blast together and are each others best friends, which is really fun! I say it all the time, but who knows what the future holds for us or anyone, we just take it one day at a time, and do our best to keep our focus on HIM!

 God Bless and Love, Leslie