Thursday, March 24, 2011

Coming Home/Army Wives...

Does anyone else love Coming Home like I do?!  Ever since I first saw my first homecoming I was in awe and thought that these emotions and feelings should be on display for the world.  (Guess I should have had that copyrighted huh!)  It is amazing though!  The surprise ones are the best just the look on the kids face is priceless.  I know last year a lot of our guys got the option to come home early from the MEU port in Hawaii and several surprised their wives by being at home a week earlier than expected.  The facebook postings had a lot of us in tears.   All Homecomings have this magical, loving and exhilarating vibe about them even seeing the ones that are on a tarmac or at a waiting area on concrete are all still special.  I’m glad that someone had the bright idea to put this on film for everyone to view!

So far I absolutely love this season of Army Wives!  Like so many other ladies who cannot wait for Sunday’s episodes because I too am addicted.  For some reason I felt like in past seasons it has been off and one sided at times and kind of unrealistic in ways.  This is a good starting point as a sneak peek into the lives of real wives in the military. 
 
I can’t speak for Army of course and it may be exactly their lifestyles but a bit glamorized up for tv but I notice the similarities to life here which is nice.  I like how they seem to be linked to each other regardless of rank.

To go off topic a bit there is still that invisible hierarchy there for wives and in some instances people take it very seriously.  I see the point for it and in the Old Corps I would have never been allowed to mention being in the same bridge club or family readiness group as the highest ranking officers or senior enlisted’s wives.  I understand that they have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders to be the socialites of the Marine Corps, as well as role models and mentors for the entire junior enlisted regardless of whether they want to or not.  I am thankful to be a part of the newer edition though so that I can learn from others experiences and make great friendships with these women who’ve come before me.  I hope to be in their places one day so it’s good to learn a little ahead of my time to be prepared.

Back to Army Wives, these wives like I’ve talked about before have this bond that no one but them can understand.  They are each other’s lifelines for support, information, know the risks and dangers yet still unconditionally love these men.  It can be extremely hard to maintain jobs, kids and their schedules with extracurricular activities as well as the volunteer obligations and our own sanity with a smile on our face preparing care packages, balancing bills, maintenance on the vehicles and ourselves; video chats, letters, MotoMail, Google Alerts, family readiness information and events, deployment updates, and friend’s updates.  It’s a balancing act definitely but it is necessary to get through our everyday routine.
 
This show includes all of that though.  When the Col’s daughter passed away, grieving that kind of loss, the disappearing biological father come back to see his son one time, Pamela's divorce, reconcile, dating after divorce, where & how to move on afterwards, the fights that occur during deployment, the fights that occur because of the job while not deployed. 

If there isn’t clear communication and understandings of where each person stands in the military relationship feelings will get hurt, words will be misunderstood and fights, misunderstandings and long debates are bound to happen.  Outside opinions and feelings which stir the pot with possible good intentions but who are not in your situation to fully understand can and will try to put in their two cents. You have to know yourself, why you love your man and why you and he choose to maintain this way of life.  People will challenge these things and you have to be strong enough in yourself and your marriage to know he loves you, he loves his job.  His job is his passion and in his gut he honestly knows he’s helping others overcome adversity.  By maintaining his and your way of life back home you are helping him help others overcome adversity. It's hard but do not let anyone tell you differently!  Stand up and be the advocate for your family.

So Army Wives gets two thumbs up from me right now…with nearly everyone deployed it is pretty close to our lives including the teasers and breath holding cliffhangers.  Strong bonds, communication and mature understanding in the marriage lead to successful deployments.  Now as for Sunday…I wonder how this will play out..
 
 

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