Being away from home for the last 6 years now has been really hard on me. I am a really family oriented person and I always have been. I love my family, all of them, and I love spending time with all of them. With the military and all of our moves you learn that "your friends are your family, and your family is your friends." In some cases that was true. You see your friends way more, you celebrate with them, you cry with them, you watch their kids grow....at least until one of you moves away. You gain some lifelong friendships and another name to add to your Christmas card list every year. But to me friends will never replace my family, but they will be added to my family. It's hard when you go to see your family and your kids don't recognize any of them, they don't know their names, or really who they are at all. But friends are like "aunts" and "uncles" and "cousins". We've been away from home for so long now and deep down it kills me. I hate that I only get to see my mom like twice a year. I hate that every time we go home our kids have doubled in size since the last time everyone saw them. I do have the most amazing friends here and I know I would miss them terribly if we left, or if any of them left. With the military though you learn that goodbyes just mean new hello's. I think that's why I have a hard time getting close to people because I always feel like as soon as we get close one of us has to say goodbye. It would be nice to settle down somewhere for a while and actually send our kids to the same school for more than one year, and let them make friends and keep them. I wish I could just move everyone I loved into the same little town somewhere so I could see all of them as often as I wanted to. But that's not life. Life is all about the people you love so hold on to them when you can, and miss them when they are gone, and pray that you'll have the time to spend with them. Love your friends like family, and treasure your family....even when they drive you crazy. Life wouldn't be life without them.