Featured Blogger: Carmella Wallace “Experiences as an Army Wife”

Often times, complete strangers who do not even ask my name pay for dinner for my family and me.  In the past few years, the most I have paid for any cost related to healthcare is $3.00 for co-pay on prescriptions.  I am obtaining another degree that is not costing my family any out of pocket expenses.  I am an Army wife.

Reaping the benefits of my soldier truly relieves some of life’s difficulties, but these gains do not come without sacrifice. Often times when the disadvantages of military life are discussed, love ones fighting in wars is the first idea to come to mind…not my case.  My husband will never have to deploy again if he chooses to remain in his current career field.  The challenges I face are more of a result of my thinking, rather than my actual situation. It is only God that keeps the “what-if” thinker like me grounded.

Being away from family often makes me wonder, “What if an emergency happens? What if I need someone to look after my daughter? What if my husband and I need to tend to certain things that she doesn’t need to be exposed to?”  After picking up and moving just as we became accustomed to a new environment and adopted new family and friends, the “what-ifs” stirred up even more.  “What if my new job makes me miserable? What if my husband has training to complete and I’m left to survive in a new city where the only person I know is a six year old child?” Then comes the hassle of finding genuine Godly fellowship and a place of worship that would nurture my spiritual needs… Now, I have become the soldier.

I’m now on foreign soil, but I have been trained by the One who sees and knows all and I am protected because He is my Sovereign King.  My comfort is in His word, “Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear;…For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion…” Psalms 27:3; 5