The Military Child

Earlier, I asked a question, "Where is my hat?". I wanted to know where the recognition for all of us, the wives, is. Where is the recognition for the spouses that serve, and work, just as hard, we just don't carry a gun.

It's amazing how much your perspective changes with the birth of a child.

Layla is three weeks and a day old as I type this. She smells like the lavender and vanilla baby lotion I just put on her, she's wrapped in a blanket that says I Love Daddy, and tucked into a fresh diaper, clean clothes, and a pair of the socks I was obsessed with while pregnant. And she's propped up on the pillow Daddy slept on while he was here.

She also looks like her father, which never fails to send an arrow through my heart, especially in the wee hours of the morning, when I want to snuggle her in bed between us.

She was born 3 weeks ahead of April, the month of the Military Child. She also is one. Already, at a time when she's figuring out where her ears are, where getting a smile out of her occupies half my day, when she's still small enough to carry with one hand, she's learning the lessons I never wanted to teach her.

That being in a soldier's life sometimes means sacrifice. That honor and duty come before love. That for a few months, Daddy is a voice over the phone, or a face in the computer. That there comes a time when the Army calls, and Daddy never fails to answer that call.

And that, in a few months, Daddy will come home. She's learning the flip side as well, that deployments end, that Daddy will be leaving his boots in the middle of the floor for Mommy to trip over once again.

My whole point… the world of a soldier's child is topsy turvy, and oftentimes involves pain, sacrifice, and tears. As most wives are insulated from what it is like to watch your husband leave for war, most children do not know what it is like to live without their father.

But my lack of recognition no longer matters. I just want the world to remember what Layla is missing, even though she's small enough to never remember this first few months without Daddy.

The next time you say a prayer, send good thoughts out into the world, however you choose to be positive, take a moment to say one for the Military Child.

~Jennifer