The most difficult part about being a military family is never knowing where you will end up. I remember when I first got married it seemed so exciting, the idea that every 4 years we would get to go somewhere new. I spent most of high school career jumping from school to school simply because I never wanted to stay any one place too long. Admittedly, I have for most of my life been a bit of a "runner". I feel overwhelmed or bored and just go somewhere else. Not a healthy way to handle business. I lived in the same home from around 3 to 9, but at 9 I not only moved to a new house, but a new country. From there we hopped from house to house a handful of times and then eventually back to the states and into a house that would be my mom and step-dads home till I got married. I moved out early and then went back and then out and then back- you see the pattern. All of this to say I don't feel like I can blame some constant shifting of life on my becoming a runner. Maybe you are reading this and live in the same city you grew up in with your parents in your childhood home right down the street and you think my story certainly has the potential to cause a runner. Maybe you are right, I am sure I don't know, what I DO know is the constant moving of a military lifestyle was greatly appealing to me.
So here I am 11 years and 3 states later and ALL I WANT IN THE WORLD IS TO GO HOME. The moving has been an experience. We have made some AMAZING friends and had both great years and less than great years. There is real heartbreak though. The heartbreak is that aside from my mom and her husband, who we were stationed near for 4 years, my kids haven't had to opportunity to really know their grandparents. Both fortunately and unfortunately, they just so happen to have REALLY AMAZING grandparents.
Our family is what some people would think of as something along the lines of "The New American Family". I don't really like that term, but I say it because both my dad and my husbands mom are in same sex relationships. My mom is remarried and my husbands dad is currently unmarried, but he was married and even she was great. Every man and woman my kids could technically call grandma/pa is really a unique, loving, self sacrificing, awesome human who certainly has the ability to pour greatly into the lives of my kids.
A couple weeks in the summer is only a couple weeks in the summer. All of these people work very hard and I don't know the last time you looked at airfare, but it is OUTRAGEOUS (especially flying all the way across the country). Because of work and money and lack of much vacation we simply don't see each other nearly as often as any of us would like which means my kids are MISSING OUT.
They are missing out on my dads never ending patience and desire to sit on the floor with them for hours building blocks or chasing butterflies. They are missing his partner Clays contagious positive outlook and motivation to get out and see the world. They are missing out on their Mimi Trina's creativity and the ability she has to see amazing potential in less than amazing things. They are missing out on their Yaya Stacy's work ethic, contagious laugh and stellar sense of humor. They are missing out on their grandpa John's laid back, good timing, never ending bucket of car knowledge.
Despite all this missing out- we as a family have been BEYOND BLESSED to have my mom and step-dad David within reach these past 7 years. They have been the sort of grandparents that everyone hopes thier kids will get to have. They are selfless, unconditionally loving, mountain moving, candy fountains and my kids adore them. I have never seen love so blatant as I have been able to witness watching these two with my children.
Lucky for us, we ARE headed home in a few months and I will have the opportunity to witness not only that crazy love, but also all the little things everyone has to bring to the table, get to work inside my kids. You don't get to pick your family, and you barely get to pick your in-laws so I consider myself BLESSED TO DEATH to have so much of what I desire and enjoy on both sides of that fence.
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