Salute to Spouses Blog

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We Are Thankful: Every Thanksgiving is the Best Thanksgiving Ever

During our past 26 years as a military family, we have learned that after all the ‘firsts’ - the first Thanksgiving of our marriage, the first one with one child, the first one with two children, the first return from deployment, the best Thanksgiving ever is always the one right in front of us.

For the past 12 years, we have lived a life of ‘split ops’ and are always looking forward to being together in the same house again. In 2003, when we PCS’d to Georgia, we had already decided that this would be our retirement location. My husband would have 17 years active duty by the time he would likely PCS again, and after going to that duty station without us, he would retire and return home to us in Georgia for good.

We agreed to having this ‘split ops’ for three years, to enable our children to establish roots in our community, their new schools and sports and to allow me to continue building a successful career without moving anymore. The thing is, it didn’t quite happen that way.

 

Since that first stint as split ops, he has lived in eight different places without us, including Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, I recently calculated that we have lived apart for about nine of the past 12 years.

The good news is that our plan, although difficult at times, has worked like a charm. Our son finished in the top 10 percent of his high school class; graduated from The College of William & Mary with stellar academics and in the football record books many times over; was drafted into the NFL and is now living the first year of his dream career.

Our daughter, who is seven years younger than my son, is doing very well in high school academics; was an All-Star (competitive) cheerleader for eight years by the time she got to middle school; has played school volleyball for five seasons and is in her fourth year of club volleyball.

I have a career I love and the opportunity to maintain an awesome degree of work-life balance with an organization that allows me to telework four days each week. 

So tonight, as we anticipate my husband’s arrival from Virginia in about 24 hours, and our drive to Tennessee to visit our son later this week, I know this Thanksgiving will be the best one ever, because it is the one that is right in front of us.

And as usual, when at all possible, we find a way to be together for a few days to celebrate all the things we have to be thankful for, especially each other. 

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