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| These are tools of the trade for the military spouse |
I hope you observed Veteran’s Day. If you did not, you can combine my challenge and veterans and their wives. Today is E-card day. Send a card to as many friends as you have time, as well as veterans. Write something besides your name if you want them to respond to you and then total up your cards and we will add up how many cards we sent, and how many we received. See, I told you, the challenge could be combined with your thanks to a veteran and to their wives.
Our country honored United States’ veterans
last Tuesday. I am here to honor their spouses. The veterans are the one who
protect and defend the nation against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.
They move in harm’s way and pretend it is normal. Yes, they need God’s help to
do it. You know the spouses, too. They look like regular people, but sometimes their
jobs are not. It includes protecting the home front against all enemies both
foreign and domestic. That includes everything from lazy children who won’t do
their chores to people who think their husband can’t hold a job, because the
military keeps moving them. They pick up the kids after school, organize
booster bake sales, as well as stay near Skype during deployment, and pray like
the kids’ lives depended upon it. For it does, for those little buggers will
push their mom to the edge of the pool whether their dad is gone or not.
So here is a list of warriors and their wives.
Their service expands from World War I to the war that now rages. I am sorry I
cannot use their surnames, because some of them will never see their names in
print. They will go about their lives and serve their country. They will be
buried, and no one will know the difference, except there will be a difference.
Warriors have done their duty and
beyond, and as well as their spouses. So I will say it again, when you send out
your e-cards, send a couple to military wives.
In honor of
these wives, I humbly post this poem. It only touches the surface of the job
the military wife does day after day, because her husband is called to be a
warrior.
Here’s to
Anne, Becky, Cheryle, Diane, Eunice, Florence, and a million more whom I
proudly served with and whom I delightfully call “my friend”.
A Tribute to the Warrior Wife
Love
recruited the Warrior Wife for this assignment,
Her voluntary enlistment lasts a lifetime—
She knows no retreat for love of her
Warrior Man keeps her here.
Her swearing in came before God,
friends and flowers.
Her “I do”, given freely and
without reservation, promised
Till death do they part,
she and her Warrior Man.
Warrior
wife’s survival kit includes laughter and a great respect for the power of
prayer.
She speaks “militaryese”
fluently with her family of military sisters.
While her
anchor’s away, she taxis kids on three continents and on both sides of the road.
With
artistic flair, she creates an address book that would make Picasso look sane.
An army of
one, Warrior Wife destroys mounds of laundry which threaten the home front.
She holds her
Warrior’s heart, and small hands, as well the American flag and a pet leash.
Warrior Wife can fix a flat, sometimes,
And kiss a scraped knee better every time.
Warrior Wife holds down a
job part- time.
She makes friends and
her famous fire-breathing chili lots of times.
She changes diapers a million times.
Regardless of duty station, she births babies
in due time.
Warrior
Wife’s pay day comes in the form of a candy bar.
Remote duty continues
as the battle for the TV rages.
Their
college student studies a thousand miles away on an unaccompanied tour.
Temporary
duty finds her soaking in endearing emails and a hot bath.
Covert
missions include her best “under covers” work.
Wild blue
yonder orders do not scare her for she trusts the Supreme Commander.
And, at the end of the day Warrior Wife can be found on her watch,
Continuing the cadence
begun by previous sisters,
Waiting—Waiting at the kitchen door,
Waiting on some reunion- ready runway
Waiting on some eternally mist-kissed dock,
Always waiting, waiting for her Warrior to return.
--Frances
L. Lewis
