Creative HomeFires is a series which highlights the value that creativity offers to family members of a deployed spouse/significant other. We offer stories of the creative life and the beautiful benefits experienced during some of the most difficult seasons.
This Feature is written by Melissa Gutierrez, shop owner of
Lots of people remember significant events in relation to the year it happened, the school they were attending, or by the job that they held at the time. Military spouses remember events by where they were living at the time.
We got married 3 days before we left for Japan. We welcomed our first child into the world in Jacksonville, Florida. She started walking in Hawaii, rode a bike for the first time in Virginia. Her brother came along in Maine, and he potty trained in New Hampshire. With transitioning between so many bases, I’ll soon be able to tell you where my daughter started high school, and where my son started kindergarten based on where we are stationed.
We got married 3 days before we left for Japan. We welcomed our first child into the world in Jacksonville, Florida. She started walking in Hawaii, rode a bike for the first time in Virginia. Her brother came along in Maine, and he potty trained in New Hampshire. With transitioning between so many bases, I’ll soon be able to tell you where my daughter started high school, and where my son started kindergarten based on where we are stationed.
As much as the idea of another set of movers makes me want to sigh, the experiences I have had, all over the world, have made me a better person. The sisters that I have made by living on all of these different bases has given me the knowledge and experience that I need in order to make a home, even when the place I was born is thousands of miles away.
These are the things I think about as I work on each and every sign I create. These bases that I paint on the boards are more than just letters on a piece of wood. They are first children, first steps, first deployments and so much more. When the boards come together, they tell a story. The story of a special kind of person; a person that can make a home anywhere the military sends them.
Robin Norgren, Blog Coordinator
4 comments:
Those are so beautiful! You do a fantastic job.
This is so true - my mom actually encourages me to make sure to space my children far enough a part so they can each be born in different states/countries. :)
BTW, I love my Wordboards - everytime someone comes over they ask me where I got it from and I tell them from a fellow Homefronter!
Melissa's work is always perfect (or perfectly distressed) and quick too. I always get so many compliments on both of my signs.
These are beautiful!
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