via
When I first moved to Fort Drum, I befriended a few girls I had met on Facebook. I became really close with one of the girls, who we will call Jan for privacy purposes, and considered her a really good friend of mine.
We talked all throughout deployment; those nights where we couldn't sleep because we were up with worry, the times we didn't hear from our husbands for weeks, and the times we couldn't figure out why our newborns were crying. We were there for each other on Skype when we delivered our children, we were a phone call away when our husbands went back after R&R, and we were the closest thing to someone understanding exactly what we were going through.
Her husband was scheduled home a few weeks before my husband was. I was over the moon excited for her and couldn't wait to see pictures. And then she asked me " We've been by each other's side this whole deployment, can you come to my husband's homecoming ceremony and support me?"
My heart sank. Do you know how hard it would be to see a ton of soldiers march in the gym and not one of them be my husband? I politely told her that it would be too hard for me and that I just couldn't put myself through that emotional stress. She was hurt, and kind of gave me an attitude about it. We let it go for a few days and really didn't talk about it again.
Being the Army, her husband's flight got moved back a day and she was super upset.
Being the kind person that I am, I told her that I would be okay and that I would like to accompany her to the gym when her husband arrived home. She was ecstatic and I tried to prepare myself for the emotional wreck I was about to be.
Nothing could have prepared me for that moment. I was fine until I heard "Ladies and Gentleman, please give a round of applause to your 3rd Brigade Spartan Task Force soldiers"... I lost it.
Hundreds and hundreds of soldiers entered the gym and my husband wasn't one of them. He was still in Afghanistan, risking his life and facing death on a daily basis. They played the National Anthem, I cried harder, and then I watched all of these other women receive their husbands in their arms. _______________________________________________________________________
Fast forward a few months; Jan switched into a completely different person when her husband got home; we grew apart, she got pregnant again, and we just weren't friends anymore. She had made digs at me and my life and it was better for us to go our separate ways.
While her mom, yes, her mom, found it necessary to tell me off through a TEXT MESSAGE. She told me I was selfish, materialistic, a terrible mother, and that I had no business having children.
As you can imagine, these words were extremely hurtful and extremely untrue. Anyone who knows me knows that I love my son more than words can describe, would bend over backwards for any of my friends, and would give you the shirt off my back if you needed it.
I learned a lot that day. I learned that God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.
No but seriously, I learned that some people have nothing better to do than try and bring others down and talk maliciously to them to make them hurt like they have.
It took everything in me to take the high road and just delete those women from my life but in the end, I'm the better person for it. God throws us curveballs and tests us everyday and this was a test. How would I respond? Would I try and break them down like they attempted to do with me?
Absolutely not. I had SO much to say back to these two but chose to hug my baby, kiss my husband, and cut those crazies out of my life.
Acts of kindness and unselfishness don't go unnoticed. God is watching, karma is keeping tabs, and those that love me tell me everyday. Who needs negative people in their life? NOT this girl.
"Conquering life one step and one museum at a time."
