militarymoms

As you may have guessed, I’ve been away.  We had a lovely vacation in Canada, and if you want to know more about it, I’m uploading articles and photos here.  (Scroll down to the Canada travel articles.)

For the first time ever, we were actually in a place where there were no Independence Day celebrations - when we’ve been stationed overseas, MWR has always put on a July Fourth celebration.  It felt a little strange, but we had the opportunity to be part of Canada Day (July 1) instead, and we learned a lot about Canadian history while we were in New Brunswick.  Canadians love to celebrate their national holiday just as much as we do, and we had a great time attending a festival and then heading down to the Petitcodiac River and watching fireworks.

I think it’s important to remember that we, as U.S. citizens, don’t have the patriotism market cornered.  (Just watch the European soccer championships to see continent-wide patriotism in action!)  Nearly everyone is proud of his or her country, even if circumstances (such as marrying into the military) have caused that person to become a U.S. citizen.

Throughout my husband’s military career, one of the parts I’ve most enjoyed has been getting to know other military wives from around the world.  My friends hail from Spain, Sweden, Italy, Japan, Canada, the Philippines, Korea, Germany…you get the idea.  They’ve taught me to make lumpia, given me religious items from Fatima, prepared poutine for my children, given me hacky sack-making tips and showed me their confirmation photos (with the future Pope!).  In every case, I’ve learned a lot from my friends, and my life is much richer for having known them.

Just another reason to be thankful for this chaotic but fulfilling life…

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