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Mission: Milspouse - Empowering Spouses, One Missi •

More than just a Milspouse - Mission: Milspouse

While scrolling through some reels today on Instagram, I saw a few seconds of a reel where there was a woman reacting to someone who said, “Is being a military spouse your entire personality?”
She gave the camera a glare, then I scrolled on.
I cannot give her credit because I am not sure who it was, but it stuck out to me because I had already started writing this blog post.
 
 
Sometimes it feels like my entire life is centered around the Space Force (military).
I purposely seek opportunities...
Mission: Milspouse - Empowering Spouses, One Missi •

What is a Military Spouse? - Mission: Milspouse

When I became a military spouse in the late 1990s, I wore the label, “military spouse” with pride, and that is still true today.
For me, knowing that I was a military spouse made me feel like I was a part of a club that only those who had been one could really relate to.
I have heard some people pushback on our calling ourselves “military spouses” from others who are not a part of the military community, who feel that it is unusual that we identify ourselves with our spouse’s job.
 
 
I think...
Mission: Milspouse - Empowering Spouses, One Missi •

You Matter (Suicide Awareness) - Mission: Milspouse

You Matter (Suicide Awareness) ***Trigger Warning: This post talks about Suicide***
Some of us may have a story or many stories about how or when our lives have been touched by suicide. We may have struggled ourselves with suicidal thoughts, or known others close to us who have.
Maybe we have even known someone who lost their battle, and we are left with questions and sadness. These are difficult things.
Our military community is well acquainted with the aftereffects of suicide and plagued wit...
Mission: Milspouse - Empowering Spouses, One Missi •

My Milspouse Summer is Just Another PCS

Our summertime plans this year consist of a PCS and moving our family from California to the Washington, D.C. metro area for my husband’s new assignment.
We PCSed in 2021, and 2022, and now we will again in 2024.
He went to school at Fort Leavenworth and then he had an assignment here in California that was two years, and now the two years is up, and we are moving on.
We have never lived so far East, the furthest we lived before was Michigan and Ohio.
 
 
We intentionally chose to live in an...
Mission: Milspouse - Empowering Spouses, One Missi •

Trust your Gut, Advocating for Your Child - Mission: Milspouse

I had been a military spouse for just a couple of years, when at 27 years old my first child was born. I had her after having 4 years of infertility and miscarriages.
She was mostly easy and we did not really have any issues. A year later, we had our second daughter, and she was completely different than our first.
She was a fussy baby and I attempted to breastfeed her which I had not done with my first, and she was not taking to it easily.
I gave up and started her on the same formula I had u...
Mission: Milspouse - Empowering Spouses, One Missi •

The Gateway to Air and Space Forces - Mission: Milspouse

Recently, I had the honor and privilege to attend a basic military training (BMT) graduation at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas which featured both the Air and Space Force’s graduations.
While I was excited to witness what I heard called BMT “magic”, I also was excited to look back on a time when I was a young wife and my husband enlisted in the Air Force in 1999.
We were in our mid-twenties and had been married a couple of years before we weighed all the pros and cons of every branch of servic...
Mission: Milspouse - Empowering Spouses, One Missi •

Supporting Our Military Children - Mission: Milspouse

One thing that has been most important to me, as a military spouse, is figuring out how to best do this life while supporting our children with the changes and difficulties. When my children were very small, there were many times that my husband was away, and I had to parent my children alone.



It was incredibly taxing on me juggling school runs, homework, dinner, bath, and bedtimes alone.


Yet when they were small, I found that Dad being gone or having to move was a lot easier on them. They bought into the “adventure” that we sold them a lot more than they have as they got older.
Mission: Milspouse - Empowering Spouses, One Missi •

Anniversaries and Seasons of Life - Mission: Milspouse

Most people just celebrate Valentine’s Day in February, but it is also our anniversary month, so we get double the romance! This year we are celebrating 27 years of marriage!

I cannot believe it! In honor of my anniversary, I wanted to share a piece of our story and write about what we have learned about building a long-lasting marriage throughout our journey.



How it got started.


Tem Spafford at the beginning of their journey

My husband and I met at church in our early 20s and after a short friendship turned courtship pledged our lives to one another at the baby ages of 22 (me) and 21 (him).
Mission: Milspouse - Empowering you to navigate th •

Being Intentional in the New Year - Mission: Milspouse

Over the years, I have struggled to make and keep New Year’s Resolutions, so more than a decade ago, I gave up making resolutions.

Honestly, I knew that I would never keep them since I had a fairly consistent history of failing to follow through.

We live in a culture that idolizes success and overachieving, and it can be rather overwhelming trying to live up to other’s standards.
Mission: Milspouse - Empowering you to navigate th •

The Greatest Gift of Being a Military Spouse is Other Military Spouses - Mission: Milspouse

The greatest gift of being a military spouse is other military spouses.


What all military spouses know is that military life is fraught with many challenges. As military spouses, we learn to roll with the punches or soon enough we may find ourselves overwhelmed by circumstances that are out of our control.

We do not get the luxury of living in destinations of our choice, and often our houses are assigned to us or are ones that barely fit our budget or family size, yet we must create a home for our families.
Mission: Milspouse - Empowering Spouses, One Missi •

Space Force Spouse Takes on #EFMP - Mission: Milspouse

Our family’s EFMP story started while my husband was enlisted and we were stationed at Travis AFB, California in 2004, and my second daughter began having feeding issues before she turned one.

By the time she was 18 months, she needed speech and eating therapy, and occupational therapy for sensory issues.

The true impact of EFMP was not felt until after my husband’s break in service, he was commissioned as an officer in 2010 and we were stationed at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio.