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That's just one thing I took away from a roundtable of military spouses led by Representative Glenn Nye (D-Va) of the House Armed Services Committee.  Rep. Nye organized the roundtable after Blue Star Families brought the abrupt halt of the MyCAA program to his attention earlier this week.

Last week, a bipartisan Congressional delegation travelled to Afghanistan to meet with troops and commanders and Operation Appreciation went too!

Congressman Glenn Nye (D-Va), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, brought letters of thanks to our soldiers from Blue Star Family's Operation Appreciation.

How do you explain war to a 3 year old?

My son, Hollis, will make pretty much anything (even his railroad track parts) into a sword and he pretends to shoot people all the time.  But at this age he really has no concept of death, aside from the demise of his cat.

Military families with children often face educational disruptions.  But what happens when military families with special needs children move?  The evaluation process for services varies wildly from state to state and is time consuming.  The level of services also varies across the country.  These challenges can be frustrating to military families with special needs children.  Today, we welcome guest author Jessica Butler, mother of a child with autism, attorney and advocate for special needs children, to address these issues.

Most military spouses experience the mid-deployment blues, and as I near the halfway point of my husband's 14-month absence, I recognize the signs; in my case, though, the mid-deployment black-and-blues have rendered me useless. Last fall, I fractured my foot and wore a cast for six weeks; just as that was healing, I slipped on a patch of black ice and hit my head.

Last week I had the privilege of participating in a web radio discussion, Work/Life and the Military: What It’s Really Like to Work and Serve.  I was joined by host Katie Stanton from Fem 2.0, military blogger Liberal Army Wife and Diana Zuckerman, President of the National Research Center for Women an Families.

UPDATE: The application process is now closed. Thank you to eveyone who applied.

ArmyStudyGuide.com is recruiting freelance writers and bloggers!

I was lucky enough to attend the Congressional Military Family Caucus briefing on mental health issues late last week before Snomaggedon hit the Washington, D.C. area.

Kristy Kaufman started the proceedings, as always telling it very much like it is!

Blue Star Families needs your help.  We want to know how we can make BSF better for you.  We want to hear your ideas for helping military families.

And we're going to enter you into a drawing for helping us!  Between now and April 1st, everyone who signs up for our mailing list will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate.

It's something that many people take for granted when the economy is booming.  Many of us rely on a second salary in the family to pay the bills or to have even a hope of saving for the future.  But what happens when the economy is in trouble, jobs are scarce, and you have to move every two years?  What happens when you move to a new city across the country or overseas, your spouse is deployed and you can't find quality day care so you can get back to work?