Spend time with my family.  My husband has spent the majority of our sons' lives deployed, so I really cherish the time we have together.

Our troops, but especially our Marines and my husband!  It's corny but true.  I am a huge patriot.

Hearing rude or ignorant remarks towards my son or other people with special needs.

I think it would be a huge honor to represent military spouses.  I would love the opportunity to make a real change in the lives of my fellow spouses, to have a platform and use it.  Since my younger son has been born, I have sworn that I would be an advocate for special-needs families, and this would be a great way to do that, while also helping my fellow military spouses.  

I also love being a milspouse, I love our life in the Marine Corps, and I'd want to share that with other spouses and show that as challenging as our lives can be, they can be even more rewarding!  I would love to see spouses have more ways to connect on base, support each other and make friends, through spouses groups or family events.  So often, I hear spouses say that they've been in a new duty station and have only made one friend and don't know how to meet more people.  Having events, play-dates, spouses groups, etc., would be a great way to solve that problem.  It also could help spouses to cultivate their interests -- such as music, sports, etc. -- and meet friends with similar interests at the same time.  The kickball league on base here at Camp Lejeune is an excellent example of what I'm talking about, and what we need more of!  Spouses need a way to meet other spouses, connect with them, and form a support system outside of just their units.  

I would go back to the day I found out Wyatt had Down syndrome.  My husband had just deployed less than a week prior, I was 16 weeks pregnant, and I was absolutely crushed.  I was a wreck for days.  I wish I could go back and tell myself that everything would be fine, and that Wyatt would be a HUGE blessing, extra chromosome and all.

I would really like to see more recognition of our special needs families.  I hear from a lot of spouses that they run into problems with EFMP or are afraid to sign up because of the stigma attached; with schools; finding good teachers, doctors, and therapists. A lot of spouses don't even know what resources are available to them.  It is issues like this I'd like to address.  I also would like to see better resources available to spouses who, for whatever reason, aren't at a duty station or are stationed somewhere (like on recruiting duty) without a lot of resources around.

I also think giving spouses a better support system on their base, outside of just their unit, would help many spouses not only make friends, but find battle buddies and shoulders to lean on when things get hard.