Whirlwind of Opportunities

Life has been on fast forward these days. I am elated to announce that I was chosen as the 2012 Coast Guard Spouse of the Year. This is a tremendous honor and I cannot even put into words how amazing this is. I am humbled by the support I have received and by the work I am able to do. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I am passionate about serving military families, and it's as simple as that. No matter where this journey takes me, I will continue doing what I do. Just to give you an idea of how I feel about serving military families, I wrote this out. I wanted to elaborate in my video, but because time is short and I was rather nervous on camera, I wrote it out. My video hits the main points and explains what I am already working on, in sum, but there is MORE. There is a lot of day to day, behind the scenes stuff that I don't share with folks, but here on this blog, I will elaborate more and more. But, first....here's what I envision about what I am doing now and what I intend to do as the 2012 Coast Guard Spouse of the Year and possibly the 2012 Military Spouse of the Year:

I am honored to be the 2012 Coast Guard Spouse of the year. I am proud also to be the founder of Coast Guard Family Organization and Military Spouse Mentoring. I created Coast Guard Family Organization, Inc., because Coast Guard families are often excluded Department of Defense programs like Military One Source as the Coast Guard falls under the Department of Homeland Security. My other main organization is Military Spouse Mentoring. This mentoring program was born from an idea to connect military spouses from all walks of life regardless of branch affiliation to help one another in the areas of education, career plans, parenting and navigating military life among many other things. But, this is not about me and what I have done. This is about our military families. This platform allows for those of us who volunteer our time a stronger voice to be heard for positive change and progressive impact.

Congressional budget cuts are on the rise and because of that military family programs face an uncertain future. I will continue to work hard to keep existing programs in tact and gain support for an all encompassing military family bill to further provide for military family benefits, which would also address military retirement. At this point, we need to cut through the bureaucratic red tape to save heartache and money and allow for creative financing.

Another thing I want to talk about is my education focus. With my own children, I have noticed shortcomings in public school curricula from state to state and this is happening across the Nation affecting a myriad of other military families. Therefore, I am working to gain support of standardization for K-12 curricula or at least providing viable alternatives for our military students who are often advserly affected, academically, because of PCS moves.

Similarly, I have felt the strain of transferring credits and limited collegiate financing options that so many other spouses face and I am supporting every effort including the Military Spouse Education Initiative to see improvements in this area. Likewise, I will continue to work to gain support for universal reciprocity of certifications, licensures for all spouses regardless of their branch affiliation.

As a military spouse, veteran, and parent, I understand many of the obstacles military families face on a daily basis, whether it is navigating TRICARE, dealing with the VA, special needs or reinteigration, etc. I am well versed in a number of these areas and what I haven't encountered, I seek to better understand to support my peers and the military family at large.

No matter where this journey takes me next I will continue serving military families. Thank you for support and please vote for the nominee that you feel would best serve us all as Military Spouse of the Year.

Here's my latest and greatest video (don't laugh too hard, I told you I was nervous, this is a HUGE honor and I get a little shaky when it comes down to it, after all, I have wonderfully, big, great shoes to fill!). I have been running into a lot of trouble getting a video to upload, but finally had luck today! 2012 MSOY FINALIST VIDEO

In other news, this week, I will be speaking with the folks at Business and Professional Women's Foundation about partnering our mentoring programs! Yay for www.militaryspousementoring.com. and I also have a scheduled conference with the folks at Building Capacity to discuss the K-12 education issues of our military students and what they are doing in working with Dr. Jill Biden and how I can help. This is all before Wednesday. Someone pinch me!

Appreciating Others.

My incredible husband isn’t one for taking credit for anything. He always makes sure his subordinates and teammates receive the accolades instead. He does what he does well because it means something to him. He doesn’t want the attention that comes with it though. The reward of a job well done, as Jonas Salk once said, is the opportunity to do more. And, because of the way he works, people are often providing my husband with more opportunities to make a positive impact on things. And, he does, because it’s just the kind of guy he is, but he won’t tell you that himself. Why?...Because it’s not about him.

I am a big believer in doing more. So taking Salk’s words and my husband’s example into mind, more often than not, I strive to raise those up around me. It’s the right thing to do. You can never appreciate someone too much. You can never say thank you enough.

I have a terrific team at Coast Guard Family Organization, Inc. and a great growing team at Military Spouse Mentoring. I cannot even begin to tell you how incredible my support is at United Against MST. So, here I want to take a moment to thank each one of the amazing folks who is a dedicated volunteer to these organizations. Without them, these groups would be nonexistent. I cannot run them by myself. I just have ideas and dreams and the people around me, supporting me, help me to make it happen. They are truly awesome volunteers who have as much faith in causes that I do and keep doing what they can to keep forging ahead.

CGFO, Inc. - Amber Broadway and Beth Koehler.
CGFO Advisory Board –Amy Goodpaster-Strebe, Chrissy Thompson, Rebecca Dorval, and Alisha Carter.
Military Spouse Mentoring – Amber Broadway, Beth Koehler and Amy Granillo.
United Against MST (on the web)– Susan Avila-Smith.

We are only as strong as those around us. I am proud to include myself among the ranks of these remarkable women. There are SO MANY more supporting the organizations above, that you may not know of, behind the scenes; I would love to list them, but truly, there is not enough internet space.

In sum, I just want to say, I am a grateful person. I am blessed to be surrounded by so many philanthropic individuals who give their time and talents to support others—so many others they will never even meet. BUT, their work matters. I thank them and am thankful for them each and every day. Last but not least, I am thankful for my husband and his philosophy on teamwork. His appreciation for others and putting them before himself is something I truly admire.

My advice for this week: Thank someone. Make sure they know you appreciate what they do.

It's Monday and it's a busy one!

This morning's festivities kicked off with responding to a military spouse's concerns about her housing situation. They are living in shabby housing to say the least. That's not the big problem though. The issue is that no one is helping her out and she is getting nowhere fast. Hopefully the information I was able to give her will provide her with enough ammunition to get things taken care of.

On tap for today is some freelance legal work (a girl's gotta pay the bills) and then volunteering at my daughter's school for a bit.

One issue I am seriously addressing this week is working collobaratively on a milspouse education matter that was recently posed to me. I am elated to support the brains behind the mission and see some changes put into place. Our military spouses sacrifice and serve so much, but often feel that education is still not within their reach due to financial strains, childcare matters, inability to transfer enough credits between schools and so on and so on. It's about high time this ridiculousness is put to an end. Military spouses need a strong voice and need a team of people working on their side and I am more than thrilled to be on that team!

Have a fantastic day everyone and don't forget to vote at MSOY. Thank you!