Queen Amoung Women

This is Josh. First I want to say that I have so much that I want to share with everyone about my first two weeks in the academy. However, this post is not going to be about me and my time here. This post is going to be about my wife.

If you don't know it, it takes a very special and deep woman to be the wife of a game warden. And I don't say that just becuase I grew up with one. From the very beginning it is extremely tough. Seven months of being home alone wondering what and where your husband is, wondering is he missing me like I am missing him. My wife sleeps in a bed all by herself, leaves in the morning to an empty house and comes home in the evening to an empty house. She does all of the household chores (although I know she would say "and that's different how") I don't know where she gets the courage or the strenght to maintain this type of lifestyle, much less for seven months. I don't want to talk down all of the other wives that are out there, because after living with 48 guys I have much respect for all the women out there that are wives. You have my sympathies!!!

So we make it through seven months and then what? We start a new life in places like Vider, Jasper, Pecos, Kerrville, Star....what a wife it is that is still here with me. You see...GW wives not only are wives, but they are the receipient of all the major war stories. I will get to come home and tell my wife about the guy who didn't want to be arrested, or the car chase that ended in the corn field, or why I came home with a shiner on my eye. See GW wives spend alot of time at home worring about their man in the field. Is he in a fight, is he asleep on a hill, is he on a lake? I couldn't picture a wife I would rather travel this life with other than Lindsey. GW wives get woken up in the middle of the night by phone calls meant for their husband, they have to deal with animals brought home by their husband, they host GW's in their house constantly. What a wife....

The courage it takes for lindsey to let me chase this dream, with the risks that are so apparent. Amazing! I know the pain that she has felt as of late with me being gone, the lonliness while I am down here. Such sacrifice!! But such a deep place is being built between us. A place of trust and deep longing. GW's consider their wives the most important partner they will ever have. Although she is not the person in the field with the gun that is backing you up, she is playing a much more powerful and meaningful role. She is the keeper of the GW's heart. She loves the game warden, she holds the game warden. So much of our time is spent in a place where emotions will get you killed. But a game warden can come home and be a husband, or a father, and I beleive they are a deeper form of these two because of the occupation the do every day. The wife is the cornerstone of that bond and energy.

To my wife, There isn't another woman in the world I would trust as my partner than you. I may be on a lake or in a fight, but you are my life and my dreams. I couldn't be a game warden if I couldn't come home to you every night. Seven months will be over before we know it and I smile at the fact that you will be waiting for me to smile at my stories and my adventures.

You are indeed a Queen amoung Women.....