Finding Blessings From Unexpected Places

I had the best talk with a mom at the bus stop the other day. In our talk I asked if her husband was one of the other Marines that was in the area. She said yes, and went on to explain how he was and what he did in this area, since it is not really a military town. In the process she asked about my husband since he is not in the unit or one attached to her husbands; although they run into each other from time to time. I told her my husband is a recruiter in the area. The topic ran from there. She told me about her experiences while her husband was recruiting, and how she made it through and gave me some helpful advice. I noticed that like many others in our situation, there were some good things that were said, but it was mostly negative. I shared some of my experiences so far with her, only to find that they were running in vastly different paths. Where this woman had a horrible experience, one that she was reluctant to talk about, I found that I was not. This made me very hesitant to share my mostly going positive experience. Although it did not start out positive, mainly because of my attitude, the more I think better on it the more positive my experience is. I realized that I have been extremely blessed. We are in a place where I can call on my family anytime, they are 30 minutes or less away and we are so lucky for that. We are also extremely blessed that he gets to be home. He may work ridiculous hours, and on weekends, it may suck all around but he is home. He is not in danger, he may miss a bedtime or an event but it is not constant like a deployment. He is present when he can be and I understand when he cannot. That is hard to say. I was mad, so mad that he was state side and not there. I felt like he should be there since he was not gone. Now I can be at peace with it and accept that he dies what he can and that the kids and I are not the only ones making sacrifices. This is the best thing for him and for our family and we are extremely blessed that we landed where we did. I can also be at peace with the fact that although this duty is harder and unlike anything we have ever experienced, it can be good with a good attitude. Never before have I  felt blessed like this or expected to find this in unexpected places. It was incredible to find that. I was humbled by the experience and thankful of the reminder.