Our Army career is almost over. I'm still not sure how I feel about this. It will be just a few months and we will be living like civilians again. It will be so nice to go back home and live close to family. My son has only been around his grandparents a couple of times in his 7 months. We can buy a house and settle down and not have to worry about orders coming in out of the blue to move us to another part of the world. My husband can have a normal schedule. He can be home the same time every day and not have to leave us for days or even 15 months at a time. All of this make me very happy and excited.

At the same time, I have been an Army wife for almost 6 years and it is part of my identity now. I am very proud to be an Army wife. I know about things like AR's (Army regulations) and M4's (which you are not allowed to call a gun- it is a weapon). I am still figuring some things out but show me an Army movie and I will show you all the mistakes in their uniform. I was really looking forward to adventures like living in Germany or Alaska that I never got to experience. I love, love, love it here. I have great friends and a church that I don't know what I will do without. There are drawbacks to being in the Army, there are great benefits. We have amazing health insurance. We never pay a dime for anything including prescriptions and over the counter medicine. My husband gets 30 days off a year plus lots of paid holidays. Monday is Columbus Day so he gets a four day weekend! How great is that? Can we give all this up to have him home safe and sound? I think it is a price we are more than willing to pay.