Mama Monday: Home Fires Burning

I don't usually write about things that I have no direct experience with, but I am for this post. Today is Memorial Day, and in the United States, it is a day dedicated to honor our military men and women. While I am grateful for the soldiers and their sacrifice, I wanted to focus in my post today about the military wives.

I am pretty sure that I would not make a very good military wife. I don't have the disposition to be a single mother, not for very long anyway. But I firmly believe that women who are thrust into this calling (because their husband enlists) or choose this calling (because they marry an enlisted man) are a very special group of women.

I am privileged to have a military wife in my family. My sister-in-law's husband is in the Army. He has been sent to Afghanistan at least four times, but she rolls with the punches and keeps their family stateside going strong. I know that she depends on the other army wives and her church family to create a close knit community for support while he is away, but the nights are still lonely, I'm sure.

I have the utmost respect and admiration for her and all of the other army wives. When I think of the wives left behind, I'm reminded of the words used to describe the woman in Proverbs 31:11,

The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.

I have been privileged to have a glimpse into some of the communications between my brother-in-law and sister-in-law via Facebook. You can tell that he has complete trust in her when he is half a world away. He knows that anything that arises, she can handle. He knows that their two little girls are being cared for by an awesome, amazing mother who keeps "Dad" in their hearts no matter where he is located.

On this Memorial Day, I wanted to recognize these heroes behind the scenes who watch their husbands leave, who raise their children alone for months at a time, and who work at marriage and motherhood much harder than I ever will.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

My niece giving her dad a hug before he is deployed to Afghanistan again.

Wishing all of the military families a very blessed Memorial Day from the treehouse,

Chelli