This past weekend I had the amazing opportunity to attend one of Bless the Badge‘s LEOW workshops! Lisa Lerner (author of Crossing the Thin Blue Line) and Allison Uribe (founder of Wives on Duty) brought us Tactical Relationship Training and IT. WAS. INCREDIBLE.
The day started off in true blue fashion with some coffee and donuts 😉 There was a thoughtful spread of snacks and beverages and the sweetest goodie bags filled with gifts from LEOW owned sponsors. We were given time to mingle with other wives, which was one of the best parts-and also one I was the most nervous for! In all honesty, “networking” and meeting new people is a bit daunting to me sometimes. I was nervous to attend this event alone (usually my go-to is to drag along a friend or two!) but all of the women there were incredibly friendly and welcoming. If you’re like me and sometimes opt out of events if you’re going alone-don’t! You will be SO blessed by this event, whether you come with another LEOW or not.
Lisa opened up the day by sharing a bit about Bless the Badge and her and her husband Chuck’s experience. They also did a segment later that afternoon about communication and blue marriages. It was such a good reminder to invest in your marriage AND a great reminder of how important our roles as LEOWs are. Our sacrifice (think: those lonely nights, those missed holidays, that solo parenting, those cold dinners…) makes their service possible. And that is not something to downplay! We also discussed love languages, which if you’ve been around here for awhile know is a platform of mine (read an article I wrote for Proud Police Wife here). It was also very eye opening to hear from Chuck (a retired officer) and his view on things. He brought up how our officers are literally trained to integrate and win confrontations, and that is their job all day at work. But when they come home, that strategy doesn’t work so well, does it? I felt like I could sit and soak up everything the Lerner’s were saying all day long!
Allison shared about an amazing and often overlooked topic-kids on duty! Her heart for blue families is unmatched. The stories and tips she shared about raising our blue kiddos (who might be growing up to be LEOs or LEOWs themselves!) were amazingly eye opening. She talked about how the world, especially for our officers, can be chaos-and our households don’t have to be that way. It was a great reminder of how important it is for our homes and our families to be a safe place, a “heavenly substation”, for ourselves and for our officers.
Yall, I could go on and on about how great this event was, but instead I’ll just say this-go. If you have the chance, go! Bless the Badge travels all over the country providing their conferences and workshops FREE so that blue families can get the support and resources we need. To see if they are coming to a location near you, check out their event page here.
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