https://annaspafford.journoportfolio.comRSS Feed for Anna SpaffordenThu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://missionmilspouse.org/more-than-just-a-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...Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://missionmilspouse.org/more-than-just-a-milspouse/https://missionmilspouse.org/what-is-a-military-spouse/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...Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://missionmilspouse.org/what-is-a-military-spouse/https://missionmilspouse.org/you-matter-suicide-awareness/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...Sat, 03 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://missionmilspouse.org/you-matter-suicide-awareness/https://missionmilspouse.org/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...Sun, 09 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://missionmilspouse.org/my-milspouse-summer-is-just-another-pcs/https://missionmilspouse.org/trust-your-gut-advocating-for-your-child/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...Tue, 04 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://missionmilspouse.org/trust-your-gut-advocating-for-your-child/https://missionmilspouse.org/the-gateway-to-air-and-space-forces/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...Thu, 09 May 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://missionmilspouse.org/the-gateway-to-air-and-space-forces/https://missionmilspouse.org/supporting-our-military-children/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.Thu, 11 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://missionmilspouse.org/supporting-our-military-children/https://missionmilspouse.org/anniversaries-and-seasons-of-life/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).Sun, 11 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://missionmilspouse.org/anniversaries-and-seasons-of-life/https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/722a0b18-e62d-4abe-8d66-6a5034b2d324.pdfMilitary wives have been not only supporting their husbands, but also supporting the mission of the military since Revolutionary War times until today. Wives make up 92 percent of today’s military spouses (dol.gov). They are a tough group that makes the best of every situation, and they bring a piece of home with them wherever the military sends their family. The military asks a lot of military members and their families with frequent moves, deployments, and spouses are the glue that holds down the home front. This paper will highlight contributions of military wives since the inception of the United States, but most information gathered came from officer’s wives’ perspectives because there are limited sources from the enlisted wives’ viewpoint.Sun, 04 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/722a0b18-e62d-4abe-8d66-6a5034b2d324.pdfhttps://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/0d60193f-d688-4743-8774-61a67fb318ae.pdfAs a Christian, my basic assumptions are that there is a divine creator, God, who sent his son, Jesus, who became a man who died and rose again, so that mankind could be restored into right relationship with God, the Father. I believe mankind is fallible and yet created by God to be good, and inside of us is a compass that is a guide to right and wrong. I am not sure I believe there is an absolute truth because I question how we can know what that is, as my faith has evolved over the years from believing whatever I was taught about the Bible to learning how to study and understand the Bible for myself (Holland et al.).Fri, 02 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/0d60193f-d688-4743-8774-61a67fb318ae.pdfhttps://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/9e055b27-9b89-484b-8302-43776252a515.pdfStanding at the bottom of the hiking trail at Red Rocks Canyon Open Space with my husband, I stare up at what seems like an endless trail that leads upward towards the mountain, it feels daunting. The trail is taunting me as I ready myself for this steady upward movement that I know will challenge my resolve to continue and will make me question why I am doing this, and can I make it to the top?Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/9e055b27-9b89-484b-8302-43776252a515.pdfhttps://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/1fbee851-1545-44da-bb82-1e3b69a30ccb.pdfThe devastating effects of migraine touch every aspect of one’s lives, and researchers are on a quest to find out why migraine attacks happen and what can be done to make the sufferers lives more livable. It seems everyone knows someone who has migraine attacks, or they suffer from it themselves, and it increases urgency for the medical field to advance knowledge and treatments to help those who suffer.Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/1fbee851-1545-44da-bb82-1e3b69a30ccb.pdfhttps://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/53971f3b-cce5-4ae4-b32f-bb6a915ee183.pdfMy eyes flutter awake. I hear the birds chirping outside my window, and sunlight creeping through the blinds. I had tossed and turned most of the night. I went to bed thinking I would have an answer in the morning, but here it is already 9:30 a.m., and I am no closer to knowing what to do than I was when I fell asleep.Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/53971f3b-cce5-4ae4-b32f-bb6a915ee183.pdfhttps://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/af965ec9-f6c3-4c0f-90da-9c8839581d50.pdfThe book of Genesis from the Bible and The Navajo Creation story called “The Emergence” are two stories from different perspectives about the creation of mankind and the earth. The book of Genesis is a story written originally in the Hebrew language as the origins of the Jewish people but was then translated to Greek and then Latin before being translated to English by Christian translators.Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/af965ec9-f6c3-4c0f-90da-9c8839581d50.pdfhttps://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/images/225b4763-8b93-465e-93b1-51786715a335.pngOver 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. I have decided that it’s ok to not have huge goals for the coming year and it’s ok to not feel compelled to live the “New Year, New You” philosophy. Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having big goals or resolutions.Fri, 12 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/images/225b4763-8b93-465e-93b1-51786715a335.pnghttps://missionmilspouse.org/being-intentional-in-the-new-year/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.Fri, 12 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://missionmilspouse.org/being-intentional-in-the-new-year/https://missionmilspouse.org/the-greatest-gift-of-being-a-military-spouse-is-other-military-spouses/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.Tue, 19 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://missionmilspouse.org/the-greatest-gift-of-being-a-military-spouse-is-other-military-spouses/https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/aed530e4-e023-4643-87a8-df2de0d222d4.pdfEvolving Faith also hosts a community on Mighty Networks that provides a different space for folks to connect and continue their conversations with fellow wanderers, wonderers, and spiritual refugees. Evolving Faith is an open and affirming, progressive community and it has designated spaces for those who identify as LGBTQ+, BIPOC, neurodivergent, and disabled. It is a place to ask questions and to learn different ways of thinking than the traditional evangelical spaces offer.Sun, 10 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/364141/uploads/aed530e4-e023-4643-87a8-df2de0d222d4.pdfhttps://missionmilspouse.org/space-force-spouse-takes-on-efmp/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.Tue, 17 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0100https://missionmilspouse.org/space-force-spouse-takes-on-efmp/