My home away from home...

Today I am in Jacksonville, NC ~ the place where my life as I know it started. The place where my husband proposed to me, the place where we bought our first home, the place where we married, the place where we survived two long deployments, the place where my baby was born, the place where I developed my faith in my Savior, the place where I held my first real calling in the church, the place where my husband accepted the gospel, and the place where we were sealed together as a family for time and all eternity. A lot of good happened to me and my family right here in this tiny Eastern NC town.

For those who have been here know that there is nothing special about this town that is full of tattoo parlors, pawn shops, check cashing stores, and strip clubs. But there is something special about a place where people say hello to you when you walk through the parking lot at Wal-Mart and there is something special about seeing every single star in the sky at night and there is something special about not sitting in traffic for hours at a time just to get three miles down the road and most of all there is something special about the maximum speed limit being 55 mph and not getting honked at if I don't beat the green light off the line. There is also something very special about visiting old friends.

Tonight I got to visit a very good friend of mine and if she reads this she will probably cry, that is not the intent, but I only speak the truth and I speak it rom the heart :) I got to visit a lady that helped me become the woman, wife, and mother I am today. Sitting around this lady's kitchen table tonight made me feel as though I have not been away for nearly two years. We talked like we saw each other yesterday, we talked like we were comfortable and there were no moments of awkward silence. As we visited around her kitchen table I remembered all the wonderful times we shared right there in that very kitchen and all the wonderful things she taught me. Around that kitchen table I learned how to bake bread, how to sprout greens, how to make laundry soap, how to can butter, peaches, tomatoes, and jam. I learned how to serve my Father in Heaven and how to be a better daughter of God. I learned how to be a better wife and mother. I learned how to be a better military wife. I learned how to do hard things while struggling with adversity and how to become stronger while I was doing them. In every person's life there are people who make big impressions on your life and this friend is one of them. I cherish all my friendships, but some just naturally run deeper than others.

I look forward, if it the Lord's plan, to be back here one day so I can sit around that kitchen table again and learn new things. I look forward to canning 40 jars of peaches on a hot August afternoon while our kiddos play and picking strawberries in the spring to make jam. Maybe one day I will get to come back to this small town and make it my home again for a few years. I have a lot of love for this tiny place and for the people here. I don't consider myself a small-town girl, but the older I get I more I appreciate the small town life, the slower pace of life.

Right now my home is Philadelphia and I will live and breath by the fact that home is where your family is, family being my husband and children. Being in the military you have to make every new place you live home and that is good. I love the experiences and people I have met everywhere I have lived, but this place is different. This place holds a piece of my heart and I think it always will whether I come back here to live or not!!!