While We Wait

Someone asked me what our hopes and dreams are while waiting to have a child/children of our own.

One of our dreams was to buy our first house. As you saw in a previous post, Jeremy moved to Omaha, NE with the Air Force in April of 2014 and I followed soon after in June. I was teaching 7th grade and needed to finish my school year. We lived on base for 3 years and then after he returned from Deployment, we were ready to buy. We searched, and search, and searched... Put in offer after offer after offer until we found our house. We were pretty open for what our first house needed to be. We closed and quickly made it our own. I made signs on the side while living on base. Most of my decor was made by me, which I looooove. I was able to bring all of my previous signs and hang them in our home.

My next goal was to find a SOLID group of friends. I had two close friends since we moved her. I value their friendship and I know that we will be friends forever. I plan to send them Christmas card well into my 90s. ;) I joined the Offutt Enlisted Spouses Club to meet more people and found an amazing group of friends. They are uplifting and when a husband is TDY or deployed, they rally together for each other. There is no friendship like the ones the military provides. My friend that I have made while Jeremy has been in the military are my forever friends.

Something else I wanted to be part of was being a help to military spouses. I felt like I adjusted fair quickly and well being a military spouse. I realized that there were MANY military spouses that didn't adjust as well, for many reasons. I know that being outgoing makes it easier for me to meet people but I also felt like going away to college and being a part of a social group (sorority for private Christian college) set me up to meet people. I decided to join the Key Spouse Program for Jeremy's squadron. Some of you are probably wondering what a Key Spouse is... by definition-- "The Key Spouse Program is an official unit/family program designed to enhance readiness and establish a sense of Air Force community. It is a commander’s program that promotes partnerships with unit leadership, volunteer Key Spouses appointed by the commander, families, the Airman & Family Readiness Center and other community and helping agencies." I wanted my job to be to keep in contact with the deployed spouses. I check on them at least once a month to see if they needed anything. We had a tornado go through last summer (2017) and I checked in on all of them to see if they needed anything. We have direct numbers to resources they may need at any given time. We are trained in suicide prevention and resiliency. I was EXTREMELY honored to be nominated for Spouse of the Year for Offutt AFB. To top off this accomplishment Jeremy's leadership nominated me as Key Spouse of the year this past year. I am so proud and honored to even be considered for this position. Although I didn't win the Wing Key Spouse I won the group Key Spouse. I definitely chalk that up to a huge success. I feel like being a Key Spouse has been my purpose and I love being part of the program.

Another dream was one that mostly involve Jeremy. I want him to love his job which meant that he would get a job within the Air Force but a different position. I always want success paired with his name. When he is successful, he is happy and he deserves it after all of his hard work. He had the honor to attend Military Police Investigation School in MO for a couple months. This will better prepare him for his future and possibly help him accomplish his biggest goal in working for a three letter agency after his military career.

These are a few things that I put my time and energy into while we wait. There are many others and there will continue to be more.