Thursday, February 18, 2010

When words are not enough...

In the last weeks of January, my household was in preparation for an early move to our new duty station. The hubby, my handsome, adventurous, spontaneous spouse, had decided that it would be in our best interest to do a DITY move. I will tell you that in this household, DITY is now an unspeakable 4-letter word. As he was en route to dry dock with the boat, it was on me to attempt to organize and prepare for the move.

The catch? I got sick. Violently, unexpectedly, and requiring hospitalization sick. I had been working full-time and doing the "single" mom thing with him gone. This was NOT the time to be sick. Who has time for that stuff?

This is where my Coast Guard family steps in. From friends babysitting me in the ER and helping with my 4-year-old, to dinners provided for our family from afar, help with the pack out and cleaning of the house, loading of the moving truck, and even one super special CG spouse friend who FLEW from NJ to AL to help me with the drive to our new duty station, I got a good look at what it's all about. Then when we got to our new location, there were meals, snacks, a super special family who helped unload the truck and organize the boxes, and visits and smiles.

I am working on a way to properly thank everyone for their help, (and I still need to gather some addresses), but I wanted to make a post of appreciation here. Some of the helpers are contributors on this blog, some are friends from our previous location, but many are people we'd never met.

It is heartwarming and reassuring to know that in a lifestyle where we aren't often able to be near own blood relatives, there are Coastie Family members all over willing and ready to lend a hand. I am usually someone who is ready and willing to help, but has a hard time accepting help, so this has been a two-fold lesson.
1) If someone offers to help, it's out of love, and they really WANT to do it.
2) The connections my family has made and will make in this journey that is the CG lifestyle probably won't be understood by many, but are beautiful beyond measure.

Thank you for every phone call, meal, prayer, hug -both virtual and physical-, time with my family, help with the kids, manual labor, text, and e-mail. Thank you, too, for the reassurance and love that only your CG Family can provide. There will never be words adequate for this situation, but please accept these words of appreciation from my family. In this situation, my Coastie Family was my lifesaver.


image credits: USCG.mil and Wordle


3 comments:

Elizabeth @ Lone Stars And Stripes said...

So, so great.

Glad you're on the mend, A. Take care of yourself.

New adventures await ....

April was in CA now MA said...

We don't even have children and I can't imagine doing a DITY move. After our first we swore never again and the nightmares still haunt me. LOL

This is such a beautiful story and a reminder that there are indeed some wonderful people in our extended Coast Guard family. Hope you're settling in and enjoying your new town!

C Anderson said...

I love our family.