Yellow Ribbon Event: Reintegration

I had the opportunity to attend my second yellow ribbon event! What's yellow ribbon? It's a support program through the US Army to ready families on deployment prep, reintegration and post deployment. The program I got to attend was reintegration. The Army flew me and about 40 other Army wives out to Orlando FL for the weekend and we even got to stay in the fancy Peabody hotel!

TV built into the bathroom mirror

Witnessed the infamous Peabody duck walk, to their own private elevator

Poolside Miami Vice

The 1.5 day seminar discussed thing like suicide awareness, PTSD, legal issues (if any had arose thus far), finances, Tricare (because statuses will change when the reservist spouses return) and such. I learned some things new, other tidbits were old news. The main reason I flew down was to meet other wives from our unit in Oklahoma.

Nicole, myself and Jennifer

I'd met Nicole via fb. We've chatted numerous times and I really was looking forward to meeting her. Our husbands have been friends for years and this is their second deployment together. We had the chance to sit down for dinner and chat for a couple hours about how this deployment has really effected us. Every deployment is different. Each service member experiences different threats, obstacles, dangers and experiences. Likewise, so do the wives. It was truly incredible to sit down with a fellow Army wife who's husband is going through the SAME thing my husband is, and talk about the affects it has on us and them. Truly valuable.

Jennifer is the wife of my husband's bunk mate! It was very nice to meet her as well, and they're both wonderful, strong women.

All in all it was a great trip spent learning new things, enjoying a lucious hotel with a nice pool and frozen drinks, and getting in some valuable Army wife time with new friends.

When I returned from this exhausting trip, I came home to a sweet gift from the husband.

He loves to remind me when I complete a benchmark! Another one bites the dust!