My experience as a military wife....

My husband and I have been together for 4 years and married for 3 1/2. While I knew about military life because my brother has been in the Army for 19 years, I had no idea what impact being married to a soldier would have on me.

My husband is a Major and has been in service for 15 years. Since we met, we have lived in Atlanta, Georgia at Ft. MacPherson for 6 months; Hohenfels, Germany for 2 years; and now Heidelberg, Germany for nearly a year.

When we were in the US, the military did not play a huge role in my day-to-day living, other than where my husband went to work everyday and where we occasionally shopped for groceries. We lived off-post, and I worked full-time in a major metropolitan city. He was gone for 5 weeks once, and 2 weeks another time for exercises in Egypt and Kuwait, but I kept busy and didn't have kids back then!

Then we moved to Europe. Our first post in Germany was in a small facility that has the largest training area for the Army in Europe. We were involved in a close-knit community, always knew everyone at church and the commissary. But we lived off-post in a very tiny German village in the countryside. Our biggest noises were the tractors going down the road and the helicopters overhead.

Job opportunities for professional spouses here are very limited. So I have put my career on hold until we move back to the US. I am fortunate that my husband is an officer and we can afford for me to be a stay-at-home-mom. Most are not that lucky.

At our current assignment in Heidelberg, we live on-post in stairwell apartments. I HATE IT! It's so tiny, old, crowded, etc. I can't wait to move again.

Being in Germany has allowed us to travel in Europe more than most people dream of doing in a lifetime. Both of my children were born in German hospitals. We've picked up a lot of the language, particularly since we knew NONE when we got here! We love the food, beer, wine, traditions, markets, fests and more.

Unfortunately, as our assignment in Europe winds to a close, my husband is deployed. He was sent to Israel in January to be part of an exercise for Air Defense Artillery, aka a Patriot missile exercise. He was gone for 2 weeks. We had a two-week break with him at home but then he had to leave again. He's been gone for just over 7 weeks now.

A deployment when I didn't have kids was ok. But it's very hard to be a military wife with 2 small ones. I have a son who turned 2 on Easter and a daughter that is just 4 months. My husband is such a GREAT husband and father, his absence is very apparent in our day-to-day lives.

I do feel fortunate, though, that he is not directly in harm's way, at least not so far. We pray everyday for the other service men and women and their families. It takes a unique person to serve your country, voluntarily putting yourself in danger. But it also takes a unique person to stay behind, taking care of the family and waiting.