"Where the Army sends you", "Where the heart is", "Where you make it." All of those are true yes but home...well ask any of my kids where home is and where they are from and they will tell you Pony. I am not exactly sure how it came to be, but somewhere along the route of Alaska, Washington, Georgia, Kansas, and now Georgia, Montana became their home base. Maybe it was because of the insane amount of love they receive there. Maybe it's because we return no matter what. Maybe it's because they actually went to school there with their Grandma and their Aunt as their teachers and it's where their Mom and Aunts and MJ and Erik went. Who knows! But somewhere along the lines they formed bonds, not just with family but the community. They love Ralph who gave my two older ones a smile every morning on the bus, they love Mrs Cooper who actually made them workout and have a real PE class (which is something they get highly annoyed at everywhere else LOL), Lori because after all she is the most amazing lunchroom cook (and now makes the best ribs EVER I hear whenever I make ribs LOL) . They adore Maxine because Maxine is just the most amazing lady ever. There are SO many people I could name that my kids constantly refer back to. Most importantly they found role models.
I guess growing up in a small tiny community like Pony, Harrison, Norris, you fail to realize what the REAL world is really like until you step foot into it and travel all over and just how lucky you were to grow up there. We were so blessed let Typhoon and Tsunami go to school there for just a few months while Josh was deployed. In this life, many kids when you ask them where they are from they will tell you their last duty station...mine currently say well we came from Kansas, but really Montana is home. It has always made me chuckle and shake my head at how they have two places. It is amazing knowing these kids have a solid home base to return to. It gives them a sense of security in knowing that no matter where we go they can always go "home."
Last night it was made clear where home for them was. All three kids were gathered around Facebook with me constantly refreshing hoping for an update. It is just a Class C High School basketball game. They don't even truly know some of the girls as they are from Willow Creek or are new. But...a few years ago a little girl (AKA Typhoon) entered that school as a 1st grader not knowing anyone (except her teacher because... well it was her Auntie!) She soon found she didn't know the little kids but she DID know the bigger kids. She knew Austin and she knew Robin all because of her MoMo (MJ, Morgan whatever you want to call her LOL)..and by knowing those girls she got to know Kristen and then Britt (and of course they were in her Grammy's class at that point so she got to know them a little that way too). Now Kristen is a Senior, Britt is a Junior and that little first grader is now an 11 year old basketball player. She watched those two play when they were junior high girls and now sees them playing and knows how hard they have worked. She hears about them on our summers home. She knows they are great in school, they are always sweet and say hi to her if they see her and all of that makes an impression. She of course strives to be like her MoMo, who well as we all know has been her main role model since she was about 18 months old..from sports to injuries to attitude :). But by establishing a home base and letting them have Pony and Harrison truly be their home, they have found true "peer" role models, especially with Typhoon and those two basketball players.
This life has us living in a place 3-4 years at most and so the idea of older kids guiding those younger kids that happens so abundantly in small towns, is missed often in this lifestyle. The bonds that are formed from the time they are babies and the "big kids" are elementary don't exist in this lifestyle very often. So I guess my kids are right. Home is still the Pony, Harrison, Norris community that was my home for 18 years, because even though they don't live there 100% of the time, they still can go home and for now (because well Typhoon is quickly becoming one of those older kids) have bonds there from when they were little. We are one lucky military family to be able to call one single place "home".
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