I'm a military wife; been there, done that with deployments, been pregnant while hubby worked up to deployments, had small children during deployments. We still have deployments. It's a b*&%@.
As I get older, I'm getting better with keeping the family as together as possible. But in the early days, oh man. When my husband left on a deployment shortly after 9-11 for 7 months, my firstborn was 3 months old, and I was working full time. Plus, I didn't really know the women in our unit, since most of them were SAHM and I wasn't yet.
They threw me a shower when the boy was 2 months old. And I cried. I cried alot. Maybe because they made me wear the hat made up of all my gift-wrap ribbon. Maybe because I hadn't had a full night of sleep for weeks, and I LOVE my sleep. Maybe because I was secretly terrified that I wouldn't have my first baby shower, and wouldn't have any pictures to put in my baby book.
I was lucky, and yet some women aren't as fortunate to have a helping hand. Moving from base to base, struggling to restart the process of getting to know the area and the people and try to balance life as a single mom. Many of them worry about necessary baby supplies, or just the sheer joy of sharing the celebration of a new baby, because, let's face it, the military life isn't about bling and Cristal. Some are having babies while their spouse is gone...could you imagine the man who knocked you up not around to hold your hand while you try to keep from screaming at him 'you will NEVER touch me again!'?
Thanks to Operation Shower, for the past several years, they have been staging unit-wide showers at different military bases to help those moms in need. This year it looked amazing! Along with the March Of Dimes, the help of the PGA tour and styling by none other than my blog hero and Chief Event Planner Amy of Stem Parties. Visit her for a touching video of their latest shower, visit Operation Shower to see if your local base is on their list, and help put together a box of goodies. It's a hard life y'all, and everything helps.
Shout outs to my friend R, whose family is beginning their own deployment of almost a year. Be strong my sistah...Labels: babies, giving back, shameless promotion, Tuesday Tip
