Growing Spouses....makes me Army Strong!

This past week I have had the honor of seeing something that I have poured my heart, soul, and a whole lot of effort into come to fruition.

You see, months back a mentor of mine (consequently a blogger here on LAS that you know very well!) involved me in a project that has become so near and dear to my heart. Yes so near and dear that I've risked getting into some pretty steamy waters for it! Nevertheless, the program was worth every minute spent in the pot of hot water and even those wrapped in red tape!

This week I was able to be a part of Fort Sill's Fire Center of Excellence Growing Spouses Army Strong course. This course is meant to be a course for battery commander's spouses to help them learn expectations, roles, and duties associated with becoming a battery commander's spouse. You know all that good stuff from protocol to family readiness groups.

When we first came to Fort Sill we were assigned to the TRADOC side of the house. My husband is a small group leader for the Captains Career Course. That naturally put me in a position of leadership with the student's spouses. I was able to reach out to a fellow SGL spouse and ask her to help me in creating a coffee group for the student's spouses. The stars aligned in that the coffee group was started, I met my mentor at Sill and she was working on this class, and everything just fell into place.

The first session of this class was conducted this past April for students. We took their feedback and we re-wrote the version that we just did here in August. It is/was amazing! The class was complete with a mock change of command on day 1 and just recently we finished day 2 with a mock FRG meeting that literally made me laugh so hard I cried! We're learning...and we're having fun.

The point of this blog is to tell those of you out there making things better for those that come after you, putting your hard work and sweat into something that you may never see the benefit of, that it's worth it! I am a lucky one, I got to see the results of our work in action. Many of those spouses that have worked on this never got to see it all the way through. They need to know that it's worth it!!! (I'm sure they do! At least I hope they do!)



We head back into the second week of class this Thursday and Friday. We're wrapping up things with a symposium day and a spouse panel and graduation. It should be a very eventful class!

You know I always say that my favorite word is empowerment and I have to say that last week - my heart grew three sizes as I saw empowered spouses "get it" on this journey and feel as if they had been given the knowledge to go forth and lead...successfully! Growing spouses...made me Army Strong!