Guest blog by Julie Rivera, Julie Rivera Photography
Military Motherhood: Hang the Curtains
The last time I was in Georgia was to attend my soon to be husband’s graduation from the Officer Candidate School. We went to a ball. I saw him awarded his commission. Then we high tailed it out of town so we could get back to Virginia in time for the wedding I had planned. I had no impression of Fort Benning. No real memories of the town. And goodness, it was over 10 years ago….
So when the orders came for my husband to return to Fort Benning, I did not react to the location. I reacted to the tour length. One year. One year to relocate, meet people, enroll the kids in school, find a doctor, a hair dresser, a dentist. One year and then we would do it all again. I didn’t know if I could handle the brevity. The location? I would work with that. The time frame? A whole different matter.
Now that we are four months down, with eight to go, I confess the passage of days still stuns me. Taking to heart advice my mom, the wife of a career Navy man, gave me, I hung curtains (with tension rods) and pictures in the first month. I had an internal struggle about the usefulness of the exercise, knowing everything would just come back down so quickly, but I had developed a new perspective on why I needed to do these things. While it is “just a year” to me, it is an entire YEAR in my young daughters’ short lives. For the three year old, this is more than 25% of her lifespan. It matters. She needs a home. She needs curtains.
And the truth is, no matter how many times you move or where you go, life travels right along with you. Your life. The one that you have the option of defining, raging against, or embracing. So we set about living our lives.
Three weeks ago, my 7 year old learned to ride a two wheeler. She swells with pride as she tears up the stretch of road in front of our house. This is a chapter in her life, a page from September 2013, that just happens to be taking place in Columbus, Georgia.
The little one still wants me to walk her all the way to her preschool classroom, even though she knows all the teachers and would be just fine being escorted from the car into school. I indulge her because at this moment in her life, she still holds my hand and still wants me by her side. There are mornings I would rather save the ten minutes and use the drop off option, but those daily ten minutes can never be reclaimed. That tiny hand will grow and we will move from here and the magic of a mom’s comfort will wane a bit.
I know this year matters. So I hung curtains.
Julie Rivera has lived within the military her entire life. First as a dependent of a Navy Supply Corps Officer, next as an active duty Navy Supply Corps Officer, and now as the wife of an Army Artilleryman. She has over seven years experience as a mother and over five years experience as the owner of Julie Rivera Photography. Her children might be among the most chronicled on the planet and she absolutely loves when she has the chance to turn her lens on new families and children. See more of her work on her website at http://www.julieriveraphotography.com.
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