Home Sweet Home

Being in the position I am in is very odd. Most Military Wives have awesome stories of living in foreign countries, being moved all around the country on a moment's notice, and forgetting what their childhood home looks like because they have been away from it so long. 


I am the not ever moving Military Wife. 


I have lived in Chesapeake since I was 2. I'm 37 now, so do the math. My parents bought a house in Western Branch in 1976, specifically so my sister and I could go to Western Branch schools. 
Fast forward to 2008, I have graduated college, been married and divorced, and my sister who is also a military wife is stationed overseas. 
I am minding my own business, shopping in Target for a birthday card for my niece. 
Suddenly, this short filipino dude comes up and talks to me. The rest is history. 
Target, is conveniently right down the road from where I went to high school by the way. 
Fast Forward to 2012. 
I have been madly, insanely in love with my sailor since 2008. 
He has bought a house, he has no desire to move anywhere, and with his skills in the Navy, he can stay stationed in Norfolk the rest of his career. 
So my height of military moving was moving from 23321 to 23320. I changed a whole digit in my ZIP code. 
I'm sure, most military wives would kill for that. 


I feel a little odd, that I will never have to experience the infamous "PCS" or ever live in housing. But i live the military life just the same. Even though my ZIP code has only changed by one digit, and I am only 47 minutes away from my moma, I am still a military wife. 


I experience the same thing any other wife does. He goes to work, and I tell him I love him and I will miss him, and thats it. Just like any other wife, I have no idea if he will come home or not. 


He doesn't have a job where people shoot at him or try to kill him on a daily basis. Unless you count driving through bad parts of town. 


He goes to work as an electrician, does his job, and keeps his fingers crossed he can go home before bed time. 


Even though, I referred to as not a real military wife, because there are certain things I have never had to deal with, I feel I am as much a military wife as anyone else. 


I go to bed every night they are not home and pray to God that I never get 2 uniforms and a suit ringing my doorbell. 
He jokes that I would be a rich woman if that was to happen. 
But honestly, there is no amount of money, worth his life. 


I don't really feel the threat of danger when he is "at home" and his ship is at the base not going anywhere for awhile. It makes me have a greater appreciation for those guys who ARE NOT home right now and out trying to keep it together.
It also makes me think of wives of Fire fighters and Cops. 
How do they deal with it?
If my husband was a Cop in a bad part of town, I could not sleep if he was working. I would be deathly afraid he would get hurt every night he worked. 


Somehow, I have this illusion of safety when my sailor is in port and can come home at night. 


So here I go again, rambling on and on. 


The point I was trying to make is , I would love to experience a PCS or another duty station. But this later in his career, its not going to happen. 
I will enjoy my place in the record books as the only military wife to never have to move out of her home city. 


Even though I am in my home area, with my sister and dad less than 20 minutes away and my mom about 47 minutes away, it doesn't make his job less dangerous, it doesn't make me miss him any less, and it doesn't mean his job in the military is any less than any one else's. 


It is what it is .....