A day in the life....

I am a cop's wife.  And a soldier's wife to a weekend warrior.  Double-edged sword?  Hmmmm.  Sometimes.  Particularly right now when my husband is going through a shift change at work and an Army weekend falls in the middle of it.  It means that he ends up working 8 to 10 days straight and I end up wearing his stress like a scarf. 

Sure, these times are stressful but it's important that I remember that both of his occupations bring a great sense of pride to me and our children.  It is important to me that we constantly remind our kids that it is an honor that their daddy serve in these two meaningful ways.  It's important to me that they see him as a hero through everyday acts, not grand gestures.

I am often struck by how much we downplay the hero thing to other people.  If you approached my husband and said thank you for your service or some other heartfelt compliment, he would simply nod his head and be grateful.  He would then say to me that he is not a hero.  He thinks that the fact he has not been in major combat in the military (although he was deployed for over a year) or that he has not executed a drastic rescue or something similar in the police department contributes to this perception he has that he is not a hero.

I beg to differ.

I am married to a man who has many faults.  He has weaknesses.  But he wears his heart on his sleeve.  There is no person on this planet who is as loyal as he is.  This man puts on a bulletproof vest four days out of seven, wearing it for ten hours or more each day.  He knows that any call he is sent to has the potential to end with someone going to jail or his own life in jeopardy.  This man puts on a camouflage uniform two days each month and sometimes more to direct and mentor the soldiers that report to him.  He lives with the reality that he could get a call at any moment tell him he is getting mobilized again and that he is going to have to find a way to deliver that news to me and our children.  Let me tell you having experienced it, that is not a conversation you want to be on the receiving end of. 

We are simple people with hectic, brain-scattering schedules.  We know that all that we do begins and ends with our family.  We live with fear of the unknown and downplay its realities.  We would never say to you that my husband is a hero or that we are because we support him.  We appreciate when someone does recognize us for it but promise it doesn't go to our heads.  Our main goal is to come home to each other at the end of each day to share a meal, a bedtime story and some laughs.  There's really nothing more important than that. 

The point of my post?  Life is crazy.  I need to do a better job of reminding myself of that during times of stress.   It makes no difference that my husband downplays his hero-ness.  He's still one to us.