When you get married, you are doing so to form a legal connection.
Hopefully by this point you have already established a personal connection with the person you are marrying.
Then, you start a family by adding pets and in some cases, children.
You naturally will have a connection to them, and some will form a connection to the place where this family resides.
The lines of all of these connections are so important in keeping your family functioning at a high emotional level.
When you decided to marry someone in the military, you decided to accept that every single one of these connections will be strained.
There is the strain normal families experience, but you are a military wife - so your strain will be doubled.
The connection with your spouse will be tested most likely, from the very beginning of the marriage.
If your marriage is planned, and he was able to get significant leave, you might be able to have a nice wedding and honeymoon.
If your marriage is on impulse, the chances of him getting time to spend alone time with you aren't that great.
There are variables to this of course.
If you live in the town where your soldier will be stationed, you won't be as stressed about time.
If you are from his home state, and he is stationed elsewhere, your life will change dramatically.
Keeping the peace in a marriage is hard enough, but when you are in the military, it's increasingly hard.
When he deploys or goes to training for any period of time, your lines will pulled taut.
Your communication with your spouse may not be that frequent, and communication is the key to any relationship.
There are times you won't know where he is, what he is doing, if he is OK.
These will all be weighing on your mind.
Then you have everything you are going through at home, which will be on your mind also.
When you do get to communicate with your husband, you will need to prioritize what you want to discuss.
Many times the conversation will be limited, so make it count.
Is it crazy that I mentioned the connection to the pets? Not really.
Some couples choose to remain childless and their pets become their children.
If you have children and pets, then you know the cycle of connections between you, your spouse, your kids, and your pets.
It's all the family.
If your spouse gets orders to move overseas, you may have to evaluate your connection with your pets.
If they are old; will they survive the long trip? If you have too many; which ones will you re-home? How will your kids react when they know their pets may not be able to go? This happens all the time.
If you check online, you will see pets up for adoption due to relocation every time.
If your spouse is already gone, then you are left to deal with these strained connections yourself.
Flat out if you have an emotional connection to the place you live, it will be interrupted.
As a military wife, you have the option to stay where you live or move with your husband.
Since you married him, you most likely will want to move with him.
He WILL get stationed elsewhere.
You will have to move at least once.
If he chooses a military career, then you will most likely move multiple times.
You will have great memories in each place you move, but as I said earlier, these connections will be temporary.
Take a lot of pictures, and do your best to catalog them.
These connections are ones that many people take for granted.
They may be something you have taken for granted before this union.
You will never take these connections for granted again.
The times in your life as a military wife will be dotted with perfect moments.
Those moments, when your spouse is home, you are in a place you love, and your kids and pets are thriving, are moments worth noting.
These are temporary, which make them that much more special, savor them.