Who Else Sacrificed For Your Freedom?

Who else sacrificed for your freedom?

This week we will pause and remember the sacrifices that so many have made so that we could be free.

We live in a country where we are free to criticize the government. We live in a country where all people have access to important services regardless of gender or ethnicity. I am incredibly grateful to members of the Armed Forces and our veterans for everything they have sacrificed for my freedom and safety.

For those who have gone to fight and never come home, we remember.

For those of you who have gone to fight, and come home forever changed in body and spirit, we are grateful in ways that words can’t express.

Though, we can express our gratefulness and remembrance by stopping what we are doing on the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month and walking to a cenotaph.

I am proud to live in a country where the message of remembering the cost of the freedom we enjoy is taught in our schools and spoken about in our communities.

However, our gratefulness and acknowledgement of the sacrifices that people have made should not stop at the members of our Armed Forces and our Veterans.

To the wives, spouses, and significant others of our past and present Armed Forces, I am incredibly grateful and aware of the sacrifices YOU make for MY freedom.

You have lived in fear for the safety of someone you love. Our society is finally acknowledging  the effect that war has on our returning veterans. You are the person they come home to and I know that your sacrifices don’t stop when your hero returns home. For everything you have been through and everything you continue to go through, thank you.

Parenting is all consuming and very exhausting. Doing it alone because your partner is off fighting for my freedom is a sacrifice you make and I want you to know that it does not go unnoticed.

Not only have you parented alone, you have also done it while worrying about someone you love. That extra burden makes the hardest job in the world even harder. You do it for the safety of my family and for that I can’t thank you enough.

For all of the times the phone rang and your heart nearly stopped, I remember.

To those who have given birth without their partner by their sides, I remember.

For all who have stayed home and parented alone through colic and teenage angst, I remember.

To those who have spent months on end knowing that someone they love and rely upon is in harm’s way, I remember.

This week when we all stop and remember the sacrifices that so many have made for our freedom please remember those who love them and the sacrifices that they make too.

It is always recommended that you end a blog post with a “call to action” which is usually, something like “comment below.” Your call to action this week is to thank the spouse of a member of our Armed Forces. Let them know that you realize how much they have sacrificed for YOUR freedom. And then offer to buy them a coffee. It is the least you can do.