I Cry Southfield Blue

I'm not much of a crier.

Okay, that is such a lie. I guess what I mean is that I am not one to cry to get my way or manipulate situations. But it seems the older I get, the more things will set off my tears.

I cry when I'm really angry, which only makes me angrier. I cry when something is really touching like Extreme Home Makeover, long distance commercials, and songs on the radio. And I cry when I am proud, which means that I can't go to a single one of my kids' plays, concerts or sporting events without starting the waterworks.

But I hate to cry. It embarrasses me. So I spend a lot of time covertly wiping my eyes and pretending I have allergies.

I guess my daughter comes by it honestly. Yesterday I was doing a lot of covert eye wiping and holding back tears. But the one thing that will always set me off is if my daughter is crying in joy too. And she set me off yesterday.

Anyone who knows me even just by acquaintance knows how I feel about Southfield School. We love Southfield. Southfield is our family. We may have been here in Louisiana for nine years but we're still a military family and we never expected to develop the kind of deep relationship we have with our kids' school.

From the first day of preschool, we have felt a part of things. I can't imagine a better place for my children to grow or learn. My husband has been on three deployments since the kids started school, and my Southfield family helped me though all of them.

The amount of support I've gotten from my fellow Southfield parents has been tremendous. They have done everything from the little things to help me out to the big things like including my kids in their own family time. I can't say enough about my kids' teachers or the staff at Southfield. To say that I appreciate them all is a huge understatement.

But yesterday at our monthly Flag Ceremony, Southfield honored its military families. They called us up in front of the school to show their appreciation. My husband and I stood with our kids and the other military families in front of the whole school. My kids were beaming.

I was doing okay with the tears even during the National Anthem which always makes me cry. But when the school gave us all a standing ovation, and my daughter started to tear up, well I did too.

How could these people be cheering for us when they're the ones who have done everything for our family?

After the ceremony we had a small reception. The headmaster and development director had an announcement to make. As part of a capital campaign, the public phase of which will begin very soon, a wonderful Southfield family made a very generous donation to begin an endowment for military families.

The fact that our Southfield family has made a commitment to ensure that any military family like ours who wants to attend Southfield School will be able to regardless of their financial situation is absolutely overwhelming.

They showed us a short video to introduce the campaign and I could not help but cry.

You see, we're on borrowed time here. For a military family to stay in one place for more than nine years is almost unheard of. I have wanderlust in my heart just as much as the next military spouse.

But it will break my heart to leave our Southfield family.

I sooth myself by remembering that my children will carry the spirit of Southfield with them through all of their school years and into adulthood. But to have an endowment in place and to know that any military family will be able to experience all that we did at Southfield?

Well, I'm crying right now.