My Hero

This morning on the radio, it was announced that the station was having a contest for military kids. It's a collaboration between National University and Star 94.1 to nominate military kids as unsung heroes. I am by far, not a contest person. I think I understand odds and winning too much to have any fun. It doesn't end with contests either. Once someone gave me $20 to play the slots in a casino. I used $2, sensed that I wasn't going to get any type of return on this and kept the $18, to give back to my friend. (They weren't amused.)

For some reason this contest actually got my attention. As I sat in the car with my daughter before school, I realized why this contest intrigued me. My daughter, is my hero. I sat there and recalled her 7 years of life, while she played Sudoku, with a concentration I've never seen. As a child, she has been through more changes than me AND her father had been through in our childhood, combined!

As of right now, my parents have lived in three different cities. Military Dad lived in a VERY small town in North Dakota (well, it was small before the oil boom), until he went to boot camp. Princess has lived in 6 different cities already!

Through all these changes and Military Dad's various Navy-related travel destinations, she is still this strong, calm individual. It absolutely amazes me how resilient she is.

Yes, I actually entered a contest! Since I wasn't able to write a book about Princess, I had to greatly sum up my feelings on her. (I changed the names for my blog)


My daughter has been this military family's hero ever since she was born. I personally believe she tried her hardest to delay her birth until her Dad could get home from his deployment. She missed his return home by 1 week, already 2 weeks past her due date. Technically, it was closer to 10, so I rounded up for the sake of story-telling.

During the first 3 years of her life, her daddy was able to be home for maybe 7 months (not all at once, either), due to deployments and various underways.

After a wonderful shore tour and the addition of a younger brother, we are heading back to the "normalcy" of sea duty.  During the past 7 months, while Daddy has been away, she has been our rock. 

Amazingly, she remembers a little bit about him being gone when she was younger. When asked about her father, she always says, "He's in the Navy, so he's protecting our country. I miss him bunches, but he'll be home soon!" She somehow finds ways to help out a few kids in her class that have a parent deployed too!

Princess' biggest project right now is helping her younger brother cope with Daddy being gone for the first time in his life. Poor Little Dude is the only boy right now in a family of girls, even our pets are all girls. Princess does her best to pull him through this difficult time, while maintaining the fierce rivalry of siblings. 

Princess is our source of calm. She is our hug distribution center. She is also our dose of sanity in the crazy that is being part of a military family.

Princess is proof that sometimes the best things in life come in small, child-sized packages. She is definitely THIS military family's hero.

It does not matter whether we win the contest at all. I already have the best prize possible!