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The Ocean Between Us Book Review

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OceansBetweenUs BOOK COVER

I love to read a lot of fiction books.  Since becoming a military wife I haven’t found too many stories out there that are based on a military family.  So when I heard about this book I was super excited! I can say it hasn’t let me down.  I am really enjoying the book.  The characters are likable and the emotions seem pretty real for a military family going through what they are going through.

The Ocean Between Us by Susan Wiggs

The Ocean Between Us is a powerful novel of love, duty and second chances.  Susan Wiggs deftly portrays the struggles and triumphs of an American family facing life’s greatest challenges as they come to understand the timeless lessons of the heart.

Grace Bennett has it all—three wonderful children, a devoted husband and a life of adventure and travel. But beneath the calm demeanor of an efficient Navy wife, Grace stands at the crossroads—of her life and her marriage. When she looks in the mirror, she doesn’t recognize the person staring back. She’s tired, out of shape and feeling invisible. Somewhere between her husband’s demanding career, raising a family, the constant uprooting and the Navy’s routine, Grace has lost her sense of self. Something needs to change. She needs to change.

Steve Bennett simply can’t understand the unraveling of his wife’s heart. He thought he was proving his love to her with each promotion. He believed he could still be a good husband and father while juggling an officer’s myriad duties. But he now realizes they were seeing their marriage through different eyes. And when a nearly forgotten secret resurfaces, Grace’s discontent comes into sharp focus. Now Steve must try to make their marriage right again before his next deployment. For himself. For his family. For the twenty years of shared history that have always anchored him to home.

Then duty calls.

Separated by an ocean of regrets and longing, Grace and Steve take a hard look at their faltering marriage, the love that brought them together and the family they cherish. They confront the choices they’ve made, the sacrifices they’ve rationalized and the dreams they’ve set adrift. 

But just as they come to grips with their marriage, the unthinkable happens—a disaster aboard Steve’s aircraft carrier shatters Grace’s world. As she gathers her children around her and waits for news, she faces a Navy wife’s worst nightmare—the cold truth that life’s biggest chances can slip away while you’re looking for guarantees.

 

Susan Wiggs Author Photo Don’t forget to visit the Author’s Website at http://www.susanwiggs.com/

 

I was contacted by Big Honcho Media about this giveaway.  They sent me a review copy of the book and will provide the prizes for the giveaway.

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The Life of the Military Child

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April is the Month of the Military child. These special boys and girls have different lives than children whose parents are in different careers. They see more, do more and experience more than anyone else. Some of these experiences are amazing like visiting other countries or getting to live in them. Other experiences are not as great such as going a year without seeing their dad or having to say goodbye to one more friend.

The Life of the Military Child

 

The military child lives a very special life.  They start serving their country from day one.  They have to say goodbye to daddy (or mommy) more times than a child should.  They have to say goodbye to friends all the time.  They have to be the new kid every 2-5 years.  They usually don’t get to grow up around grandparents or cousins.  Sometimes it can be years between seeing family.  Daddy might have missed their birth, first steps, the first day of Kindergarten or high school graduation.  And anything in-between.  The children of the military are the little heroes.

 

The Life of the Military Child

They get to see the world and meet all types of different people.  They get to experience so many different things.  I can ask my oldest son if he remembers that time we walked on an airfield in Newfoundland at 3 in the morning.  I can tell my 3 year old that he was born in Germany, across the ocean from the country we call home. I often wonder what kind of mom I would be if my husband never had to go away?  I wonder what our family would be like?  This lifestyle isn’t easy but it is ours.  The good with the bad.  All I can do is help my children through what they may have to face.  And pray that daddy won’t have to deploy as often in the future.

 

The Life of the Military Child

 

 Do you have military children? How many?

My Experience Flying Space-A

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my experience flying Space-A

 

This past summer Ben was deployed and I decided I wanted to spend the summer in sunny California!  I did not want to spend almost $3,000 to fly there from Germany.   My friend T also needed to get to the US so we talked about maybe trying out Space-A together.  We knew it was crazy but we were up for the adventure.  Space-A with children is very difficult but it can be done.

We made the decision about 5 months before we were going to leave.  During that time, we went to www.pepperd.com and looked over everything.  We had so many questions and did not understand the process at all.  I had another friend who had done it and she explained it to me and it started to make more sense.

space-A

First of all, there are different categories of travelers.  Active duty is Cat 3, Deployed Spouses are Cat 3b (if the soldier is deployed over 365 days) and Cat 4 (under 365 days but over 120 days) Cat 5 is for spouses flying without the sponsor when the sponsor is not deployed and Cat 6 is retirees.

If you travel with your sponsor, you will be a higher priority than a spouse without their sponsor will.  If your sponsor is deployed, you will be higher than a spouse whose husband/wife is not.

We ended up being Cat 3b because of when our husbands left and when they were supposed to return.

The first thing we did was get a signed letter from our husband’s command that allowed us to do Space-A.  We also knew that we wanted to fly out of Ramstein so we signed up with them.  We did this by sending them a simple email with the attached letter from the command.  Ramstein Information can be found here!

I did this on April 9th so that was my “sign up” date.  That meant that anyone in my category with a sign up date later than me was behind me in priority for getting on a flight.  This was any flight leaving from Ramstein.

I needed to get to California and my friend needed to get to Arkansas.  Our plan was to get to the US on the first flight we were able to.  I could have waited in Ramstein for a flight to CA but I did not want to wait there.  If I was going to wait, I wanted it to be in the US.  And we wanted to make that long flight together.

Now because we did not know what base we would end up at, we signed up to fly out of any base we thought we could end fly into.  Most of these were on the East coast.  I think we signed up for about 9 different bases.  If you sign up for a certain base and never show up there, oh well.  That is why we were able to sign up for so many.  What we wanted to do when signing up was put ourselves between days 45-50.  If you signed up April 9th and wanted to fly April 12th you would be on day 3 when you went to fly.  This is not very high up on the list.  You also do not want to be at day 59 when you try to fly out because the maximum amount of days you can be on a list is 60.  So if you try on day 59 and do not make it you will be back to day 1 the next day.

Space-A The thing about Space-A is that you need a plan, then a plan b, then a plan c.  You need to be able to change things and get creative about it.  You need to be flexible.

This is a great web page to read.  There is just so much good info there!  And Pepperd Message Board for Space-A travel is a must.  There is a ton of information about the flights there that you need to read.  Basically, you need to figure out where you should fly from and where you should fly to because not all bases are equal as far as where they go, how often they fly there and how many people they will take.

 

Too be continued…

Another Military Homecoming

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military homecoming
Military Homecoming
As I am getting ready for Homecoming 2009 I can’t help but think back to Homecoming 2007.  It was a 15-month deployment and it was 11 months between R&R; and Homecoming.  This time seems so different since I just saw him in August.  The whole Homecoming thing is really cool…once you get that phone call of where you need to be.

All the waiting until the Military homecoming just plain old sucks.  But it is worth it.

You get to the gym (or wherever you are supposed to be) and you wait.  You wait.  And you wait some more.
And then it starts.
The gym starts to fill with smoke.  You hear music and then you see them as the brave soldiers march through the door.  You try hard to spot your own spouse and when you do your heart just wants to burst.  But you have to wait.  They usually have a little
But you have to wait.  They usually have a little 5-minute speech and then you hear those words you have been waiting for…”Soldiers, you are released”  Or something like that.
It’s the words you have been waiting months and in my case, over a year to hear. The words that mean that your spouse is yours once again. That the deployment is over, that the homecoming has happened and that you can go back to living life as a Military couple once again.
Then everyone is running for their husband and it is just wonderful.  Hugs and kisses and relief.  Proposals and meeting of children and moms crying into their son’s arms. It beautiful and lovely and something a Military spouse is never ever going to forget.
Oh I can’t wait.  I really can’t wait to do it all over again 🙂

Are you waiting on a Military homecoming too?

Military Homecoming
Military Homecoming

Military Homecoming

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