Poem that speaks volumes…

At a retirement ceremony yesterday the wife was being thanked for her years of service to her family as a military wife. This poem was read and it meant a lot to me.

When God Created The Military Wife

The Good Lord was creating a model for military wives and was into his sixth day of overtime when an angel appeared. She said, "Lord, you seem to be having a lot of trouble with this one. What’s wrong with the standard model?"

The Lord replied, "Have you seen the specs on this order? She has to be completely independent, possess the qualities of both father and mother, be a perfect hostess to 4 or 40 with an hour’s notice, run on black coffee, handle every emergency imaginable without a manual, be able to carry on cheerfully, even if she is pregnant and has the flu, and she must be willing to move to a new location 10 times in 17 years. And oh yes, she must have six pairs of hands." The angel shook her head, "Six pair of hands? No way!"

The Lord continued, "Don’t worry, we will make other military wives to help her. And we will give her an unusually strong heart so it can swell with pride in her husband’s achievements, sustain the pain of separations, beat soundly when it is overworked and tired, and be large enough to say "I understand" when she doesn’t and say, ‘I love you’ regardless".

"Lord," said the angel, touching his arm gently "Go to bed and get some rest. You can finish this tomorrow". "I can’t stop now", said the Lord "I am so close to creating something unique. Already this model heals herself when she is sick, can put up six unexpected guests for the weekend, wave goodbye to her husband from a depot, pier or runway and understand why it’s important that he leave."

The angel circled the model of the military wife, looked at it closely and sighed, "It looks fine, but it’s too soft". "She might look soft", replied the Lord, "but she has the strength of a lion. You would not believe what she can endure."

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the Lord’s creation. "There’s a leak", she announced. "Something is wrong with the construction. You are trying to put too much into this model."

The Lord appeared offended at the angel’s lack of confidence. "What you see is not a leak", he said, "It’s a tear." "A tear? What is it there for?", asked the angel. The Lord replied, "It’s for joy, sadness, pain, disappointment, loneliness, pride and a dedication to all the values that she and her husband hold dear." "You are a genius!" exclaimed the angel.

The Lord looked puzzled and replied, "I didn’t put it there".

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One thing that I REALLY liked was that since it isn’t possible to have six hands, we lean on other Navy wives. This is so very true. With every move I have found I always make quick friends with other military spouses. We have dealt with things unique to our husbands’ jobs.

 

Another funny story, was the Navy wife who read this is my husband’s boss’s wife. There was a command party that was to be held the next day at someone else’s house, well their son ended up in the hospital and unable to host the party. So at the end of the ceremony I was chatting with the boss’s wife and her husband asks her if she can host the party tomorrow. A party that HUNDREDS of people are invited to. I started thinking about the line from the poem “be a perfect hostess to 4 or 40 with an hour’s notice”. She got 21 hour notice for HUNDREDS of people…HAHAHAHA

 

Love all my military wife friends out there!