Fun Family of Four Adventures: Not Good Bye but See You Later!

As military spouses we learn to make friends quickly with each move and know that we will only be together a short time. I have met some amazing women in our 11 years of moving and it never gets easy saying farewell. However I have come to realize that as big as the Army might seem it is actually a very tight nit small community. I have recently had to prepare myself for my friend Karen and her family to move away to TX.

Karen and I met several years ago in 2003 both trying to survive our husbands being deployed for the first time. I was thankful that Karen and her group of ladies welcomed me in with open arms. At the time none of us had kids and most of us didn't have a job so we had sleep overs and dinners to pass the time. We were all fortunate to follow each other to our next move so our husbands could go through training at Ft. Rucker in 2005. It was nice to move with friends! After the training we all went our separate ways again.

Two years ago, Mark, Ava and I moved back to Rucker so he could be an instructor. After a year apart in Korea, and 3 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan we needed some much needed family time! Luckily for me my friend Karen and her family had moved here the year prior. She treated Ava as if she were one of her own. Our kids looked as if they were brother and sisters and played so well together! We took turns watching each others kids and reconnected as friends again. I can't believe that we have been together through 3 Army moves! Sadly this weekend they will be moving off to TX. I hope that our paths will cross again soon. I will surely miss my sweet friend Karen, her husband and her 3 wonderful children. I am not going to say good bye but instead will say see you later!