Apparently, the girl got schooled. Or not.

Today I had the vast pleasure of getting to hear about how our government should stop helping countries in the midst of enormous disasters (Haiti, yall) and should concentrate on what's important: ourselves. Well, shoot. That makes all the sense in the world! After all, we're meant to live in a self-righteous shell, making ourselves MORE comfortable and thumbing our nose to the world and it's people. Thank you for that formidable education. Can't believe I missed the boat on that one!

Um, hello. I'm a Navy wife. I've been one for ten years and before that I was a Navy girlfriend for two years. THEN I was told that I should get my facts straight about what goes on in our military, because our men and women are being denied their basic freedoms and it's likely that I don't know what goes on because I haven't had to deal with a deployment. Now THAT, yall, made me laugh out loud! For the record, and in case anyone is checking, here's our track record:

1 Mediterranean deployment (6 months in length)
4 Middle Eastern deployments (three at least 2 months, 1 lasting nine months)
1 deployment due to arrive later this year lasting at least 5 months
Countless weeks here and there, countless days spent apart not due to a deployment

So I've got experience. I've got a TON more than I would like to say I have. I know there are those folks who feel that we should not be helping our neighbors, and while there are instances and occasions that I feel the same way, let me just say this:

Our God commands us to help the "least of these". We, in the military, are in no way, shape, form, or condition, the least of these. At all. Does the job just reek sometimes? YES. Does the separation we experience cause us to feel physical heart ache and pain? YES. Am I thankful to live in a country where freedom of speech are rights that have been ensured not by our government, but by our men and women who have fought since 1774 to keep it that way? You bet. Am I concerned that our deployment scheduled for later this year could start MUCH sooner with an unplanned deployment to Haiti? Oh...mercy, yes. Here's the thing, though. I have always told D & A that their Daddy fights for the children of the world who can't fight for themselves or who don't have a Daddy who can. If Hubs is called to Haiti, I will stand with pride and wishes of Godspeed on the pier, maybe not seeing him for who knows how long.

So, that said, maybe that's why I make a decent military spouse--it's the Southern in me. In the South, we help each other without regard as to what it will cost us. We're always the first on the doorstep with a casserole when someone has passed or someone's been born. I understand the need for the military to GO to these places that are struggling and heaving with despair. My parents gave to others--and still do--and that's instilled in me. Whether it's Collards from the garden for our neighbors for no reason or sending my sweet husband to a place where he is so vitally needed, I give. And sometimes I get tired of it, but I do it because it's my job. I'm God's child and a Navy wife.