A New Chapter for a New Year

It seems as though it's been forever since I've been able to write on here about the changes that have come to our family. For one, we moved. In October, we moved into a home of our own thanks to the amazing organization called the Military Warriors Support Foundation. Through their program, our family was given the opportunity to be placed in a program under which in three years, we will own our home. And although we moved an hour and a half away from our hometown, I have to say that we couldn't be happier with the move. The house is beautiful, our daughters are happy here, and it has forced us to come into our own instead of attempting to rely on others, something we had done for far too long. In short, this has been life changing.

To make things even better, we were invited to attend the 2013 Coalition to Salute America's Heroes annual Road to Recovery Conference in Orlando, FL for a week. We went with Siren and Banshee, Echo stayed in Tennessee with my parents as she was a bit too young to enjoy the benefits of being around kids like her. Ah, but thankfully, we were not.

The R2R conference changed our lives, in no small way. I spent much of my time in tears, absolutely in awe in the presence of so many heroes and their families. In awe of the incredible people who organized the event, the wives working behind the scenes, and the bravery from servicemen and women who struggle with PTSD and are able to talk about it. I wondered, while we were there, why in the world we hadn't known about the program years before. But then it hit me, that years ago, we wouldn't have been at the same place we are now, at a point in our lives where we were ready for the change, ready to make things better, if not for ourselves then for our daughters. God willing, we will be able to be involved with the Coalition on some level, to give back just some small part of what they have given to us.

And now, we sit here in January 2014, a new year and a new appreciation for all that we have and all that we've accomplished. We allow ourselves time to breathe. We take a slower pace at approaching difficult things, coming from all angles before we find our solution. But mostly, we allow ourselves permission to live with PTSD, to be open about it, to tell others and spread awareness so that we can break through the stigma that so often follows our service members. We have no reason to be quiet anymore, and every reason to shout.

And so, this first blog of the new year is much more than that to me. This is the first blog of a new chapter in our lives, hopefully the first of many. Thank you for reading, laughing with us, crying with us, and supporting us just by stopping by this blog.