A Place To Come Home To
by Lee S
We are like many of the other Air Force families who live at the U.S. Air Force Academy. We shop at the commissary, live on base, coach children’s baseball, and are friends with our Air Force neighbors next door. We enjoy Air Force hockey and football and attend as many of the games as possible. The players are household names around our dinner table, and we even sing the fight song between game periods. We are also cadet sponsor parents for some of the students at the Academy. Last year, we met our first cadets on Doolie Day Out. When I picked up the boys (they’re still adolescents) and drove away to get them some food and coffee, I began to see the calm come over their faces as I began to tell them of the plans for the day. There would be delicious food we would have for lunch, the availability of computers for them to update their web pages, and most importantly, the ability to talk with their families as long as they desired. This year we adopted a sponsor daughter who comes to our house every Sunday. She knows she is loved, won’t be harassed by upperclassmen, and can get caught up on schoolwork after a family meal (our young sons do give her a little sibling kidding-around). But, there is something unusual about our family: we are a Navy family living and working with the Air Force. Though I wear a different uniform than my neighbors and most of my co-workers, this has no significance to these cadets we sponsor. To them, we will accept, love, and for one day a week, give them a home to flee to much like the one they’re from - much like the Academy has become our family’s home.