I spent over twenty years as an Active Duty Army Clinical Social Worker, although I am currently retired. I am also the mother of two sets of young twins (b/b) and (g/g). As my “me” paradigm has changed significantly since leaving the military, I’ve had to readjust my expectations and goals. I learned that very little in my old life prepared me for the journey and adventure of parenting. Except for lack of sleep, that I’ve got nailed.

People often ask me why I joined the military. I was patriotic and needed money. I was interested in the Army, but my lack of math skills and dislike of an engineering curriculum kept me from applying to a service academy. That and I wanted a real college experience where I could make mistakes and only have to deal with my repercussions. After a very expensive completion of an ivy league graduate school, I found myself working two jobs. I joined the Army Reserves as an enlisted soldier at 25 (at the time, it was the only way you could get student loan repayment.). I spent six years as a Civil Affairs specialist. I met my husband during a deployment to Bosnia and realized I could double my salary on Active Duty. After completing the commissioning packet and a commissioning ceremony, I went from being a Sergeant to a Captain in a week! In my Army time, I’ve deployed to various luxury vacation spots such as Haiti, Bosnia and Iraq (x2). I retired in 2014 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

My husband, I desperately wanted children, so we began the fertility treatments that brought us our twin boys in 2010 and twin daughters in 2013. My husband, an ER and Public Health trained Army nurse, retired in 2015. We now live in my home state of Pennsylvania with the double sets of twins and my 23-year-old stepson, six chickens, two cats and a Great Pyrenees puppy

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