Sometimes I say Philadelphia. Sometimes North Carolina. I grew up in both, and I still don't have a clean answer — which is funny, because I've spent thirty years watching military kids get asked that same question and come up empty.
Growing up, my family didn't have the money to travel much. But I had friends whose families came to them. Grandparents and aunts who showed up, did things together, and got excited about the next move right alongside them. I watched that from nearby, and I never forgot what it gave those kids.
I married into the Army at twenty-four. My husband retired in 2017. All three of our children grew up as military brats — it was the only life they knew — and some of them still serve today. This family didn't leave the life. We're still in it.
But I didn't only live it. Since 1998 I've spent my time helping other families live it. I served as a Family Readiness Group leader, and I became a Master Instructor in Army Family Team Building — teaching soldiers and families the fundamentals of military life, and eventually training the instructors who teach it.
Every hour of it was volunteer.
There's no manual for the part that matters. I didn't learn it from a regulation or a policy binder. I lived it, and then I spent three decades teaching other people how to carry it.
Here's what I noticed the whole time. There's support for the spouse. There's support for the soldier. There are good programs for the kids, too — counselors, school liaisons, a month on the calendar. But almost all of it is help being handed to them. Hardly any of it is something that's simply theirs. The kids get pulled into the holiday events and then set right back down again.
Xia's Village is my attempt at something that belongs to them. It's the village I watched other kids have, built so every military kid can have one.
I'm a grandmother now. I'm also a certified AI engineer, which is why this site works the way it does: no comments, no accounts, no feed, nothing here for a child to post. And everything is open to the grown-ups who love them.
— Terrie