Wives of Faith

I received this press release from a PAO out of Ft. Stewart and wanted to pass it on…

ARMY’S SURVIVOR OUTREACH SERVICES PROVIDES LOCAL SUPPORT TO SURVIVING FAMILIES

FORT STEWART, Ga. – The United States Army has recently introduced a new, Army-wide program, Survivor Outreach Services (SOS), in support of Families of Fallen Soldiers. Offered by Army Community Service since April 2009, SOS provides long-term assistance to surviving Families on a local level.

“The Army has always had programs in place to support its Survivors,” said Donna Finney, Director of Army Community Service at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield. “SOS takes it a step further in that Survivors now have a local team of people that they can meet with whose sole purpose is to provide Survivor support at the Garrison level. As stated in the ‘Soldier’s Creed,’ a Soldier will never leave a Fallen comrade behind. SOS doesn’t leave family behind.”

The SOS team that serves Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield currently includes two support coordinators, two financial counselors and one benefits coordinator. Degreed professionals with a multitude of Army experience, the outreach team remains in contact with Survivors, answers questions and concerns, provides bereavement, benefits and financial counseling, holds quarterly focus and support groups, offers various transitional classes, mentoring and more in efforts to help the next of kin forward. Survivors are defined as immediate or extended Family of any Soldier, including Reservist or Guardsman, who died while on active duty regardless of circumstance, cause or date of death.

“Losing a loved is very difficult,” said Teresa White, support coordinator for Survivor Outreach Services on Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield. “It can be a terribly sad, confusing and often overwhelming time for Survivors. Unresolved issues might arise weeks, months or even years after the loss. SOS, partnering with and facilitating a warm turn-over from our Casualty Assistance Center, provides a dedicated and comprehensive support program for as long as Survivors need or want to maintain their connection with the Army.”

The Survivor Outreach Services teams, currently on most Army installations around the world, are assigned regions to support. The SOS team located on Fort Stewart, but also covering Hunter Army Airfield, assists all of the Survivors in Southeast Georgia, South Carolina counties Beaufort and Jasper, and all of Florida excluding the panhandle.

“Though our SOS has a specific area that we cover, and though we are an Army program, we will never turn a Survivor of our military away,” said Finney. “We will do everything in our power to make sure that our military Families are supported and feel a continual, welcomed part of our community.”

White continues, “Our Families and our Soldiers around the world make sacrifices for our country every day. Our surviving Families and their Soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice. They deserve our compassion and respect.”

For more information, contact Survivor Outreach Services on Fort Stewart at (912) 767-9176 or 767-2266.

I realized (a little late) that some of our Wives of Faith ladies might want to join us in our blog carnival but have never done a blog! So consider this your blogging tutorial!

A blog is basically an online journal of your very own. You can post anything you like that you want others to know about and there are all sorts of different kinds of blogs out there – from the popular mommy blogs where women write about their days and adventures of being moms, to milspouse blogs that cover what it’s like to be a military spouse, to cooking blogs… you get the idea.

Here are some basic steps in getting started and what you need to know to participate in our Twelve Days of Christmas Blog Carnival.

Step 1. Set up a Blog.

You can set up a free one through blogger.com or wordpress.com. Each of these sites will walk you through what you need to do in order to set one up, which can happen in about five minutes. You’ll need a name (think of something creative, don’t recommend you using your own) and you can choose a template the blogging site offers as your basic design. If you’d like some inspiration, take a look at some of the milspouse blogs over here. If you’d like a more thorough explanation, I found a tutorial complete with video that may help.

Step 2. Start blogging!

Once you have your blog, now it’s time to start blogging! Look for our topic cues each day from the Blog Carnival. You’ll write about that topic on your own blog. Feel free to add a picture or a youtube video. (If you’re not sure, just google “how to add a picture to your blog” – if you have a question, there’s a 99.9% chance someone has answered it!)

Step 3. Don’t forget to add a link.

A link is the address of a blog post or website. The link to this post is http://www.wivesoffaith.org/blogging-basics. When you write your post for a specific day, you’ll want to make sure you include a link to Wives of Faith (http://www.wivesoffaith.org). Then, you’ll want to come back to the Blog Carnival post in question and comment and include the link to your post.
This is a quick run-down on how to start a blog. Other milspouse bloggers, feel free to chime in with your comments if you think of other helpful tips! Happy blogging!

I received an email from a rep at Build-A-Bear Workshop, that fun make-your-own stuffed animal store that I’m sure so many of us have already visited, especially those who have gone through deployments.

Build-A-Bear Workshop is offering a special salute to the troops and their military families in honor of Veteran’s Day this month and between Wednesday, Nov. 11 through Sunday, Nov. 15, you can get 20% off your purchase simply by showing your military id.

If you’re not sure what Build-A-Bear Workshop is, this is a store that allows you to make your own interactive stuffed animal. We did it with Caleb when Cliff deployed the first time; he has a stuffed monkey and when it’s squeezed, he can hear Cliff’s voice saying “You’re my little monkey. I love you very much and I’ll be home soon.”

Many military wives have been able to get really creative for their kids and their deployed husbands and I know I’ve heard of great stories of deployed soldiers taking their own bears or animals along with their kids voices and sending home pictures of all the adventures their tag-a-long friends have had. It’s just one more way that you can keep the connection going with your deployed family member.

For more info, go to buildabear.com.

Got an email today from someone connected with Operation Life Transformed, a non-profit which provides access to flexible accredited online certification programs that lead directly to virtual or portable career placement. These services are offered to military spouses and caregivers of the war wounded. They also extend their assistance to the military sponsor including; active duty, reserve, National Guard and Veteran service members who have unmet needs due to injury, physical/mental disorders or deployment as a result of service in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Jeannie Benton has chosen to ride her bicycle across the United States (over 3600 miles!)  to help OLT raise funds and awareness. You can follow Jeannie’s progress on Twitter. Her ride began June 21st from Astoria, Oregon and ends on August 10th in Portsmouth, NH.

For more information, visit their website or check out this video featuring Jeannie.

I had a brand new Army Reservist wife email me earlier this week with some questions about TRICARE. TRICARE can definitely be overwhelming when you’re first getting started, particularly for Guard and Reserve spouses who often aren’t anywhere near a base to go talk to someone.

Laurin and her husband are both in their 40s and have not had insurance for almost a year. Her husband will deploy next year. She’s wondering what her best options with TRICARE are and is feeling pretty overwhelmed and wondering where to start. As I explained to her in my email back, I am not an expert when it comes to TRICARE but I am more than happy to share what we did, and point out some resources/links to check out and follow up on. I thought the same info might help someone else so I’ve pasted my response to Laurin below while leaving out specifics like location. If you have additional thoughts or advice to add, please comment below! We can all help each other!

Hi Laurin!

First, I wanted to say I’m glad you wrote and that we have all been there trying to negotiate the endless forms and information that is TRICARE! I’m not an expert on TRICARE but I can tell you my experience and what we did and hopefully point you in the right direction to get the answers you need.

Make sure you know which TRICARE region you fall under (click here for a map), which is based on where you live. This is important to know because each region is operated a little differently. There are three TRICARE regions – North, South and West – and each has their own website in addition to the main TRICARE website (www.tricare.mil).

North Region

South Region

West Region

Oh, which reminds me – one GREAT resource you should definitely keep on your speed dial and in your online favorites list is Military OneSource. They offer free information and free resources to anyone connected to the military. You can call them for questions about TRICARE as well, and there’s a ton of info on their website that will help you as you get ready for deployment.   Their phone is 1.800.342.9647. They just recently updated the site – it’s very, very helpful. Take time to look and you’ll find a lot of great useful info.

The type of insurance you decide on when it comes to Tricare will depend on how partial or picky you are when it comes to doctors. Prime and Prime Remote require that you have a designated primary care physician (they’re more like HMOs) and if the doctor you currently see isn’t in the Tricare network, you may have to switch. If that doesn’t bother you, than go with one of those. You’re eligible for prime remote only if you live and work more than 50 miles away from a MTF – military treatment facility.

We went with Prime Remote and while we did have to ultimately change doctors, we loved not having to pay ANYTHING for doctor visits while my husband was active and prescription co-pays are only $3 usually.

If you go to tricare.mil you can do a search for MTF’s to determine if you’re eligible for Prime Remote. The website is down for maintenance today; otherwise I would give you a couple of links to take you there directly. Try back later tonight or tomorrow. You can also google “military treatment facility locator” and that will take you to the right place.

We also have Tricare when Cliff isn’t active. They only started Tricare Reserve Select right before Cliff deployed. We switched for a couple of reasons: it was much cheaper than my husband’s employer’s insurance and it made things easier, especially since we know Cliff will be deploying again in 2011 – we don’t have to deal with any of the switching back and forth from private to military insurance, when Cliff is active and when he’s just drilling.  Depending on your husband’s rank and whether or not you need insurance just for the two of you or for you and the kids, TRICARE is very affordable, and many Reserve and Guard families are finding this a great option, especially for those who are self-employed or who do not have insurance through their employers for whatever reason.

Now, how to apply. You can apply online (when the site’s back up) or you can see about going into a TRICARE Service Center (TSC). These are Tricare offices located throughout the country. Look at your respective regional site and there should be a TSC locator that will allow you to enter your zip code and find the closest one. We have one in Nashville and it helped us a lot. Just be sure to call ahead though, because you don’t want to get there and find out they’re not open.

Since your husband isn’t deployed yet, you would probably go ahead and get Reserve Select first (choosing Prime or Prime Remote) and then you will switch over to Active status, choosing Prime or Prime Remote after your husband has been active for 30 days. This information should all be provided to you at a briefing before the unit deploys.

If you have questions and need answers, call your region’s Tricare hotline (you can find numbers for your region here).You’ll need your husband’s SSN (he’s the service member), and you’ll need to make sure you’re listed in DEERS in order to be eligible for TRICARE.

Ask your husband about DEERS if you don’t already know about this – he’ll need to add you as his wife/dependent and you will need a military i.d. Here’s a link to help you locate where you can get your id if you don’t already have one – http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/rsl/owa/home. Be sure to call the DEERS office before you go and verify the documents they need you to bring in order to get your i.d., as well as confirm their office hours.

ALSO – if you need dental insurance – that’s also available through the military. Your general TRICARE insurance covers bi-annual eye doctor appts each year, though glasses/contacts aren’t covered.

Okay, hope this helps and I hope I didn’t overwhelm you with info! When dealing with TRICARE, it always helps me to write my questions out ahead of time and keep a record of who you talk to and when you talk to them and what they say. Good luck and let me know if you have any additional questions and I’ll do my best to help point you in the right direction.

Stacy Bannerman, author of When War Comes Home, has been in Washington, D.C. recently, lobbying Congress to pass a national military family leave act.

“The legislation would require employers to provide an unpaid leave of 15 working days for the immediate family of a military person who has been mobilized for active duty for at least 180 days and who would be serving a hazardous duty role.”

While I did not care for Stacy’s book because I thought it focused too much on the hardships of deployment and offered little to no hope for those going through deployment, I do have to agree with her on this effort.

I have heard too many times now of women who have had no cooperation from their employers for time off before their husbands have deployed, or no time off when their husbands come home for R&R or are home for good. Women have had to make the choice sometimes of quitting their jobs in order to have that time with their husbands and in today’s economy, that may not be the best choice for some families.

Here’s the article – what are your thoughts?

I’m always on the lookout for encouragement in the day to day and so instead of turning to the latest gossip magazine or flipping on the tv I try my hardest to find something truly God-honoring. We all know that what goes in eventually comes out! So in with the good and out comes wonderful things!

I recently found this study and want to encourage all of you ladies out there, who are looking for something good to feed your soul, to check this out:

Beth Moore’s Esther, Web Promo from LifeWay on Vimeo.

You can search Amazon or your local Christian bookstore. Our local Christian bookstore regularly sends 20% off coupons in the mail so it is sometimes cheaper than Amazon! Do your homework and save some money! Then treat yourself to your favorite coffee:)

I would like to make a public service announcement to all my mil-spouse friends, fans of Sara, members of the Wives of Faith ministry, and anyone who stumbles across this blog.

Normally I’m the book girl here at WoF, and believe me, I know it’s been awhile since I last posted. I am woefully behind in my life both online and off, and I will catch up eventually!

I had some trouble with my laptop recently, and before I took it in to the Geek Squad, I backed everything up on an external hard drive.

I thought.

Yesterday I went to retrieve pictures from August, and discovered they are not there.

I double checked everything before I took the computer in.

They are not there now.

I have cried many tears over lost dance recital pictures, videos, family photos–they are all gone.

Please learn from my mistake: BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS. Online or on disk. Today.

Today, I want to address a need. When my husband deployed last, I really felt called to minister to the military wife. I got involved right away in Family Programs with the Guard and then I found Wives of Faith and got involved there also. But I have still been searching for something more to complete what I am feeling called to do. I am excited about ministering through the upcoming Bible study, but Sunday night at Church I really felt God pressing me forward, further. My heart began to hurt for all the military wives and marriages that are without God! How DO they deal with all they go through? I challenge each of you to reach out to the wives in your unit. Do they attend church? How do they get through the tough times? The questions you ask can open the door for you to share how God helps you every day. What a ministry we can all take to the “streets”!

So my journey begins as I send my malfunctioning computer back for the third time. I have enjoyed 4 months with my best friend (husband, of course) and now he has traveled off again. Only this time, when my children are in bed…I can’t sit at the computer!!!! 21 days…seemed like 21 years, really. I began to realize that my computer is my alternate best buddy when my husband isn’t around. I check emails, send emails, research military websites…I would say blog, but I am new to the blog world (but am loving it). So as I faced this time I began to realize that us Guard wives face a different challenge from Active wives. Before everyone yells, let me elaborate my feelings. While I was computerless, I hand wrote my blog…so here it goes…

Like most Christian wives, my husband is my best friend. This is great…until deployment. As Guard families our friends are all civilian, or if they are Guard, it is usually another unit. We socialize and have great times. But when a deployment or extended TDY hit, that couple relationship has been altered. Us Guard wives, whose best friends are away, NEED new willing TBF’s (temporary best friends). Before you tell me I’m wrong, think about it. I sit and need an ear to lean towards, but my dear civilian friends or Guard friends from other units are with their DH’s at home and spending quality time together. It is NOT that they don’t care about us/me, but their family has to come before me.
Now, I have never experienced true Active Duty lifestyle on a post, but from what I have read and heard, when the unit leaves the wives band together. They ARE there for one another, any time of the day, no matter what. There are no couple interruptions, because you know the other wives hubbies are gone too. The Guard wife doesn’t have this available TBF, but I believe they need it….
okay, feed back…good or bad, I’ll take it. I am especially wondering the thoughts of any Active wives out there. Do you feel the bond with the other wives like I imagine?