Deployment ~ Keeping Our Heads Up and Counting our Blessings

Freedom comes at the cost of bedtime stories, kisses goodnight, companionship, date nights, missed birthdays, anniversaries,  and so many more things... The way I look at it though, I can sit here and dwell on all of the things that we are missing or look into the four little eyes looking up at me and tell them everything is alright. I tell my children we are the luckiest family in the world to have such a brave and strong Daddy. It's true we are truly blessed to have such an amazing hero in our life.

 It was a hard morning a couple days ago as we delivered our hero to his plane. Time stood still for a moment as we stood there together as a family unit and said our goodbyes. We got into the car to drive away and Olive asked me if the plane could make a heart cloud for her as it departed. I am not sure that the request made it all the way to the cockpit, because there was not a giant heart in the sky as waved good bye that Sunday morning. There was, however a giant heart in the plane leaving us behind to perform a duty and a calling. As we stood surrounded with our sweet friends I realized just how fortunate we are.

My children and I are so amazingly blessed to have such wonderful friends who come to our side at any moment of need. I have an incredible husband who selflessly devotes his life to our country (12 years of service and still holding strong). He is an amazing father and brings sheer delight and awe to the lives of our children.  We are so lucky to have an amazing family who supports us and gives us more love than we can even hold. I am above all blessed and humbled by the Lord who placed us here and now with all of this.

My husband and I have been through deployment before, but just us, not with our tiny soldiers in tow. This time around it is different.  There are two innocent hearts with curious minds and a limited understanding of the situation at hand.  They have a Daddy Countdown Jar filled with Tootsie Rolls that they keep track of the days, they listen to stories at night pre-recorded on our iPad from Daddy, and they will eagerly video chat when they are able. These small things are lifting their spirits, little do they know that they are lifting me up a thousand times over. We are so blessed to have these munchkins who bring a light to our lives. These two bravely take on the separation as they count down the days one by one until their Daddy comes home!

It’s a Wonderful Life to be a Military Wife

Start this Song as you read this Blog Post.

It is a beautiful piece sung by the 

Military Wives Choir:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pWDp-cbKX4

There are many amazing people in this world; I am so blessed to know quite a few of them. I would say the greatest understanding I have encountered in the past few years is the incredible strength, devotion and grace of military wives in this great country (and abroad).  There are many significant events that define a military wife as such: PCS-ing (moving), Deployment (separation), Reunions, etc. These events are each important in their own way. They create a sense of community, strength, determination, pride, family and love like no other events in life. I never thought I would be one of these women.  But when you say “I do” to a Staff Sergeant/Air Traffic Controller in the US Air Force, you are automatically inducted into this beautiful sisterhood and wonderful life.

The Life that is Ever Changing

As soon as you arrive at a new base, you know that you have a set amount of time to settle in, live your life and get ready to move on again. To many this may be an unsettling feeling. But to the military wife, it is the perfect time to meet your new friends and neighbors, to set up your new home and to unpack the china. When we first moved, I was in the mindset that we should leave the “fancy dishes” packed up and ready to move on… then I realized we cannot live our life that way, we will unpack the china and the crystal, we will set up our home and settle in everywhere we go. This allows us to make each new house a home. 

Military wives instantly have something in common, we know that we need to ban together to establish a sense of community. This happens nearly instantly. As soon as you arrive, there are women who are ready to help you with salon selection, child care, advice, friendship, etc.  These women become your family. You share holidays, birthdays, joy and sadness throughout the months and years in this new place.  These women touch your life in ways that you cannot explain.   2 years into my marriage to a now Air Force Officer / Navigator, I realized the significance of this. We packed up our life – leaving my career, family and friends and moved our growing family to a new life and Air Force Family in Texas. It was here that I really felt this sense of community for the first time and realized it is a force that cannot be broken. 

This all of course leads to yet another transition at the end of your stay at one base. It doesn’t matter if your tour has been 1 year or 5, the goodbyes are never easy. NEVER.  You start packing up your things, and allow unknown men to enter your home and wrap up your valuables with little to no care and throw them onto a truck to hopefully meet you at your new destination.  You then are at the moment that you have dreaded for the weeks and months since your assignment was announced. You must say a very tearful goodbye to these women who know you inside and out. You must have your children hug their best pals and playmates, explaining that you will meet again – this is just a “see you later”. That is the beauty of the Air Force, many times your paths will cross. This may not happen as soon as you wish, but with time it will happen. You drive away off on your new adventure and realize just how blessed you are to have these people in your life.

The Time Spent Apart

The Military wife knows the day will come when her best friend and husband will have to leave her side to travel to far away land. This time will be inopportune no matter how much preparation is given.  Life will go on, birthdays, anniversaries and holidays will be missed. Babies will be born, first steps will happen and recitals will be performed. There will be so many momentous occasions captured only on film for the husbands and daddies who fight for our freedom.  There will be tears of joy and tears of sorrow in this time of separation. But through it all the military wife stands strong, fierce and independent. She conquers everything from clogged drains to family tragedy. She is the lifeblood of our nation and she is the fighting force that pushes this nation’s military to succeed!

This time moves slowly at first and then suddenly reaches a plateau where this brave woman and her other half start to realize the honeymoon reunion is in sight. There is nothing more precious than this return. The days that proceed are full of wonder, anticipation and suspense. The wives are asked to keep the exact return date and time secret from everyone to protect the safety of the mission. She will dress up her children, make paper signs, and show up at the airport, the flight line, the military base and wait with the wonder of a child on Christmas morning. The greatest gift of all is the embrace that happens between husband and wife, father and child as the crowd parts and a family is made whole once again!

My Husband, LT Jacobus Jens - B-52 Navigator USAF

Capt. Aaron Bogart, Flight Doctor USAF



Capt. Chris Occhiuzzo - Pilot USAF



LT Hector Posada - Navigator USAF Surprises his son at School!!

Thank You
Thank you to all of the incredible military spouses in my life who make this all possible, and all of these brave women everywhere. My husband has served this great country for 12 years. In our 4.5 year marriage, we have moved three times, and I have made more amazing friends along the way than I can even mention. There is something wonderful  about extending the Christmas Card list as you move around the country.  To all of the strong, beautiful and remarkable women out there - You are never alone in this beautiful sisterhood.  Merry Christmas and know that you are appreciated and blessed.

Sarah and LT Josh Swann - Navigator USAF

Renee and LT Tim Humpal - Navigator USAF

Jessi and LT Craig Gilman - Navigator USAF

Wyrene and Johnny Ramirez - Navigator USAF

The Bomber Jacket

Over four years ago my husband told me he was ready to take on a new adventure and follow his lifelong dreams to the sky.  Not really understanding exactly what this would entail – I agreed to jump on board with this adventure.  We were newlyweds, freshly reunited from a deployment to Iraq, settled in our first purchased home, and expecting a baby girl.  I was loving life – had a fabulous career as the Fitness Coordinator at a prestigious health club, worked as a researcher/writer at Gonzaga University and worked to produce and appear in healthy living films with a media company… Life was quite lovely.  But as any military wife knows, the time always comes where you must pack up your entire life and move on along your journey. Our time had definitely come to make a change.  My husband had been stationed in WA state for nearly seven years.   

After being enlisted for over eight years in the Air Force, having 2 careers (Combat Control – ie Special Ops & Air Traffic Control), it was time to earn some golden bars. My husband commissioned to be a flying officer. He headed off to Alabama for twelve long weeks of Officer Training School. I realized my life was about to change dramatically as I (for the first time) officially took on the role of military wife.  I rented our house, quit working, scheduled the movers, packed up our possessions and my little girl and set on the road to a new life. We met up with my husband (newly pinned Lieutenant Jens) in the Deep South and following graduation made our way to Texas. 

While living in San Antonio, we made some lifelong friends. I learned a very important lesson there. When you are far from your real family, your Air Force family steps up and fills in the gaps.  The connections you make are amazing and instant. Everyone is in the same situation and everyone just works together though all of the good and all of the bad.  While in San Antonio, my husband earned his Navigator Wings and became a full-fledged Fly Boy!  Oh yes,  we also had a baby boy to complete our family of four while we lived in the Lone Star State.   We now have a Californian, a Montanan, a Washingtonian and a little Texan! 

Last fall, the movers came once again. We drove our little family (with the help of my amazing mother) to the bayou.  Louisiana became our new home. We lived on an Air Force base for the first time.  Here we have the most amazing community of old and new friends, all living together, letting our children run free in the soft green grass of our connected backyards.   While we have been stationed here, my husband has flown and worked to earn his spot in the USAF as a rated Navigator – the real deal – the bombardier on the B-52. 

Tomorrow afternoon his journey to the sky will be officially complete – he will earn the coveted leather Bomber Jacket.  His graduation will be a wonderful moment for our family, friends, and all those pilots, navigators, EWOs that have been with us along the way.  I have never been so proud of any man. It has been a challenging, stressful, tearful, amazing and wonderful journey. I can’t wait to take off on our next adventure.