Air Force Wives

I’m an AF wife. WE’ve been married for almost 8 years now. We have a 2 and a 3 year old. Last year my husband decided to cross train to become a SERE instructor. We thought it would be a good time to do so cause the kids were at an age where I could handle being a single mother for a little while. So he put in and was accepted. We got our orders and now the only thing to do was wait until our house sold. Needless to say it didn’t sell. His report date came and there wasn’t even a thought of leaving when we had a mortgage to pay so we stayed behind and he moved across country. We did this for 6 months. We had some showings with our house but nothing panned out. My oldest started to comment on how she missed her dad and that she was sad everyday. She would cry if she didn’t get a card from him in the mail. Then my two year old started to randomely say that he wanted to go home.

It didn’t make sense to me because half the time we were home. Then one day he said it again, I told him that we were home and he looked at me and said, “No. I want to go home with daddy.” He reached up to give me a hug and it totally broke my heart. I decided that night we couldn’t stay here any longer. The house wasn’t going to sell but it didn’t matter. Money just didn’t matter anymore. My kids were hurting. They needed their family together. So I crunched the numbers and realized that if we were careful we could afford it. Bottom line. Being a military family is hard. I always feel like if you aren’t one then you honestly could never undestand what it’s like to deal with. But if you are separated and you don’t have to be. Don’t. If he’s not deployed go with him. I know some people are having the same problems with their house as we are, but if you can at all afford it stay together. There are going to be plenty of times in a 20 year career where you will be separated without a say. Take advantage of the time you have together.