Month of the Military Child
April is designated as the Month of the Military Child. I will be posting resources, articles, and stories about military children in our Spouse and Family section in the blog this month. Please join me! I would love to hear any stories you have to share about your military child. Please feel free to post them here in the comments section, or email them to at claire@kneedeepinthehooah.com
Here’s a couple of favorites from the mouth of my own little Emma. She was about 3-4 years old when these occurred:
This happened in July 2007, during a visit to Ft. Benning:
When we were going into the bay to wait for our soldiers to come down for Family Day last week, a platoon of soldiers (Emma calls all soldiers ‘Michaels’ because that’s her soldier brother’s name) marched by singing a cadence. Emma stood with her eyes fixated on them, and then she excitedly turned to me and said “Mama! The Michaels are singing!” Then when she saw them all marching she said “Mama the Michaels are singing AND dancing!” Since then she keeps asking when we can go back and see the “singing and dancing Michaels.” Later that day a platoon walked by in formation, but were not marching or “singing.” Emma looked up and said “Those aren’t singing and dancing Michaels.” I think she is going to like being a military brat!
On her 3rd Birthday, June 8 2007:
She got a little birthday card from him yesterday. He wrote it out on her birthday, but it only made it to the mail late last week. She carried that little card around with her all day today. Mr. Hooah! doodled a little bunny rabbit in the card for her, so she keeps saying “Look! Look at what my papa drew to me!” She slept with it last night. Here all this time I was worrying about how I would be able to keep the bonds between her and her papa strong while he is away, and now I realize I just need to keep doing what I do. I will keep telling her that her papa loves her and misses her, and I will let God and Emma’s sweet memories do the rest.
And after her papa came home, but her Michael was still in Iraq, she hit me with this one…
Then about two weeks ago we were driving to Damon’s work, and Emma spotted a horse out in a meadow as we drove by. “Mama! I see a horsey!” She was so excited so I asked her what color it was, and it morphed from being a brown horse, to being a brown horse with red and pink hair (a punk rock horse I am to assume). Somehow this talk of horses then morphed into a talk of modes of transportation.
This was not a connection I was expecting her to make. She is not old enough, in my mind anyway, to understand that a horse and an airplane are similar in that they are vehicles we use to get from one place to another. So, Emma pipes up and loudly proclaims “Mama, I am going to fly on the airplane!” To which I reply “Oh really now?! And who is going to fly with you?” Emma reassured me that her papa was going to take her onto the airplane. “Oh really? So, you and papa are going on the airplane? And just where are you and papa going, little girl?”
“Mama! Papa is going to fly with me to Iraq and we will get our Michael.” she squealed loudly!
I am glad I had my sunglasses on. How did she come to know and understand that Iraq is a place? How I pray that she will not have to know much more than that, for a very, very long time. How I pray for the day when she can see her Michael walking down that long ramp and into the arms of his anticipating family.
To which I want to close by saying that she did indeed see her Michael coming down that ramp, and in his hand was a little play horsey just for her.
April 6th, 2009 at 7:30 am
[…] check out the posts at AllMil and You Served. Also, if you have any stories to share about your military child, please send them […]
April 6th, 2009 at 11:45 am
I will never forget the look on Emma’s face on Family Day. She was sitting in her stroller and Papa knelt down in front of her. He was struggling to keep back tears but she wasn’t crying. She was studying his face intently as if trying to memorize it. Then he reached out his arms and she reached out hers. She quietly (quietly is not a word associated with Emma) went into his arms and was content to spend the rest of the day there.
The next day we were to attend graduation. Emma was dressed in her little red, white and blue sundress with her curls caught up on the back of her head. She looked more adorable than any child should look. All at once, out of the blue came the words…”he’s MY papa and I’m NOT sharing him.”
April 6th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Thank you for “introducing” us to Emma.
Wonderful stories that made me laugh and cry!
My grandsons have something of a disconnect from the
larger military family being as their dad is a deployed
Army National Guardsman and they are not around other
families with soldier dads.
The older one understands why he should be proud of daddy,
but the younger one isn’t even 2 yet.
For me as an Army brat during WWII I was at Army bases
in various states and was much more a part of the military
life-and when my dad went to New Guinea I knew many other
children who shared the experience of daddy being gone to war.