As a lot of spouses of deployed Servicemembers will tell you, keeping a regular routine and staying busy are two ways to deal with and not focus on your spouse being gone for an extended period. 

Christine Beck is approaching her husband's first deployment with the 593rd Sustainment Brigade. Friends tell her she is handling it well. Beck said she has been focusing on other areas of her life that she has a bit of control over, like her job working with special needs students as a substitute para-educator at Carter Lake Elementary School. She loves the students she currently works with and enjoys the time she has with each of them. Her eyes light up when she refers to "her students."

When she is not spending time with her husband and sons ages 11 and 14, or at work, Beck can be found volunteering for Boy Scout Troop 62 located on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.  For Beck, Troop 62 is more than just where her sons take advantage of all that Boy Scouts have to offer them.  She serves as the troop's advancement chair and treasurer as well as its "Popcorn Kernel," which means she is in charge of organizing its annual popcorn fundraiser.  In addition to her troop responsibilities, Beck is also volunteering as the Glacier View District's Cub Camping Chair.  Beck had also been volunteering with Pack 462, also on JBLM.  As her boys are now both in the troop, she will be focusing on the troop and is in the process of organizing a Crew to begin this fall on JBLM. 

Beck said that her best experience as a military spouse is that "no matter where we go in the country or the world, we will always have the comradery with other military families at our new station. We are welcomed, feel like we belong, and are not alone.  It is especially important for our kids to feel like they belong no matter where we are living."

When asked what her toughest challenge as a military spouse has been to date, Beck replied that it was losing her job with each PCS.

"I lose my job everywhere we go," she said. "I have to quit and then find a new one.  We work through the financial challenges of having one income until I find a job that works for me and our family.  We make life happen for our family."

Beck takes the Boy Scout motto of "Be Prepared" to heart.  She teaches her boys and the Scouts she works with to be prepared for all of life's challenges.  By being prepared herself, her husband's upcoming deployment will be difficult but she will keep herself busy with their boys and her many Scouting responsibilities.