Bible study

About a year ago, I joined the 4th squadron (John's unit) spouses' Bible study. This group was instrumental in changing some of my perspectives on life in the military. God showed me that I could be negative, complain, and blame others for what I had to go through, or I could work as a team with John to get through it together. I'm a very routine person who likes to plan, and being flexible wasn't one of my strong points. Nor was being an alone wife much of the time. To be honest, at times it was easier to let bitterness towards my husband and his job creep in instead of just accepting that this was our life; I had to make the best of it. I'm not perfect at dealing with everything now, but I am a lot better. I developed some great friendships along the way, and having people who can relate with your situation completely is indescribable. I really wish I would have had a group like this when John deployed after we were married. John's last squadron at McChord AFB just deployed this week, and I am praying for all the girls whose husbands are gone right now. I know that sick feeling you get in your stomach when your husband leaves for a couple months, and you don't want to let them go, but at the same time you do, so you can get it over with.

There are so many acronyms that John works with constantly...it's pretty funny when he speaks "Air Force" at home while taking a work call or talking to another AF friend, and I feel like he's speaking a totally different language. There are also just a lot of phrases in general that I don't understand, and I try to keep us as much as I can, but sometimes it's just not worth asking what something means. But that's me. Some wives pick up on the lingo pretty quickly - it blows me away. Some days I would be sitting with the Bible study girls, catching up about our weeks before we actually started the study. Air Force acronyms start flying like crazy, and I get lost trying to listen in on four conversations at once. I want each girl to interpret what they're talking about, but I can't keep up with all conversations while asking what they mean, so I usually just stare with a blank expression on my face, completely inundated with things I do not understand. Then I find a brief lull in the conversation with enough time to ask what someone meant. Although they are not really laughing at me, I see amusement on their faces as they explain something that is seemingly obvious to an Air Force wife. It was pretty humorous.

But that's the thing about this life. There's a huge balance you have to maintain between your work life and your home life. Even though I feel like being in the military bleeds over to your home life a lot more than most other jobs, there is still a way to separate your job and home in little ways. John tells me about his job, but he doesn't expect me to learn what everything means. I don't work there, so I don't need to know everything. But knowing a little bit more than I do would probably be helpful, not only in my conversations with him, but also other wives. It's definitely a learning process, but kind of a funny one. I hope I can find a Bible study group here soon.

In other news, having my parents here has been so good. My mom is one of the hardest workers I know...she just doesn't stop, even long after I'm tired. We hung up most of our pictures today, and the house feels so much different, so much homier. Funny how hanging things up can make such a difference. This house is starting to feel like our home. We've been here two weeks now, and after putting in many hours of unpacking, it looks better than I thought it would at this point in time. We've also gotten to show my parents some of our favorite spots and go to some yard sales. What a refreshing time.