FAMILY: The Military “FR-amily”

“Your family become your friends, and your friends become your family.”  As a new military family at our first duty station, that statement from a seasoned military spouse sounded harsh. I had just moved away from family and was adjusting to our new adventure in the Navy. I was sure that I would meet some great people in this new life we embarked on, but they would not be family! We waited in anxious anticipation to see who would cross our paths, little did we know how quickly that statement would evolve into reality.

Fast forward a few years and I can now explain this concept to my friends. As military spouses, often the people that play such an important part of our daily lives are not those that share our same blood line. Throughout our adventures, God has placed incredible people in our paths and those people become like our family. They are the people we put down as emergency contacts for our children’s school and sports waivers. They are the people sharing meals on holidays, and the neighbors down the street. They are the people helping us pick a new appliance when our spouses are deployed, because we all know ‘murphy’s law’. These people are the ones who are there during lonely underway times and happy reunions, the ones looking at a house for us to move into when we live in another state, and the ones who pass along tips when the billet list comes out. This is how your friends become your family! Being there to experience daily life with each other, going through the ins and outs, the ups and downs and knowing exactly what it is like to be a military family too.

Your blood family will always be important, but your new “fr-amily” are the ones who help you do life—each and every day—and are excited to help out in any way they can. I hope you can open your heart to finding your tribe, your people, your “framily” at every stop along your military journey just the way we have, because we need each other now more than ever. I promise that if you do this, you will find out quickly that those people at your command, the folks down at the park, or the new family living next door, may start as your friends, but they will move to the next duty station as your family.

~Article by Casey Biddle, Supply Corps Spouse
~Featured Image shows LCDR Tyson Biddle; wife Casey; and sons Laython, Bryson, and Taden.