On This Military Spouse Appreciation Day

Today is Military Spouse Appreciation Day. This started with Ronald Reagan in 1984 and is always the Friday before Mother’s Day. If you go on any of your favorite military spouse Facebook pages, you will see memes and articles about the day. Military Spouse Appreciation day is the perfect day to celebrate being a military spouse.

Military spouse, this day is for you.

A day to thank you, to tell you that what you do is amazing, and to recognize those who support those who serve. While being a military spouse does not make you a member of the military, it does make you a member of the military community and one who adds such amazing value to it.

This day; it’s for us, the spouses. Those of us who walked down the aisle to a man or woman in uniform. Those of us who held our spouse’s hand as they signed the paperwork to change us from a civilian family to a military one. To those who might never have seen themselves in this role but who take it on with grace.

To us, who stand by during deployments, pcs across the country or the world, and deal with all the unique situations that come up during military life.

To the milspouses who work hard to combine their career with this spouse’s career. To those who stay at home with the children. To those who spend hours volunteering for the community so that the needs and wants of the military family get met.

Some say that we don’t need any praise, that we don’t do anything any other spouse hasn’t done. But I disagree. For me, this day is a reminder of our lives and what we all go through during the years our spouse is in the military.

We go months without seeing the person we love. We play both mom and dad for months at a time. We move every two to three years and then have to figure out how to start over, even in places we don’t want to be. This is not the life of a civilian but one of the military spouse.

As military spouses, we know that life is going to be filled with ups and downs.

Some years will be easier than others Some duty stations are going to be better than others. We will have a circle of friends one year and be lonely the next. But we do all of this because we married someone who wanted to serve his or her country in this way.

We stand by because we know that what they are doing is a good thing, even on the hardest of days. We might question if we can do this forever and for some of us, this military life will only be a short time in our married lives, but we know that by supporting our spouses we are supporting our country and that that is a wonderful thing.

So on this day, accept any thanks you receive. Know that what you do matters. Understand that what you go through on a daily basis is not being ignored and that is very much appreciated.

Whether you are a brand new military spouse waiting for your spouse in basic or you have been married to your sweetheart who has proudly served for 25 years, you are doing something amazing.

Happy Military Spouse Appreciation day!