Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War

In light of the interest First Lady Michelle Obama has generated with her recent visits to military bases around the country, many Americans are asking themselves what they can do to help local military families.

Alison Buckholtz is the wife of an active-duty Navy pilot who recently returned from a seven-month deployment in the Persian Gulf, and is now preparing for a twelve-month tour in Bagdad. Alison is author of Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War (Tarcher/Penguin), to help raise awareness about National Month of the Military Child.

She has also created the two-minute video “Homecoming Day” documenting the emotional reunions between military children and their parents: http://www.standingbybook.com/Homecoming.html.

“5 Things Anyone Can Do to Help a Military Family”

Help mow the lawn or shovel snow. Seasonal outdoor tasks that may typically have been done by the deployed servicemember are sometimes overwhelming to a spouse parenting alone.

Suggest starting a school carpool. If the military spouse has more than one child to bring to school in the morning, or has to get to work on time, a shared ride will be a welcome relief.

Offer to babysit. Spouses of deployed servicemembers desperately need time to themselves -- it doesn't have to be a special occasion!

Propose to be their emergency contact or general back-up. Often military families new in town don't have trusted friends who would fill this role, and spouses of deployed servicemembers often worry about what might happen to their child if they can't be reached.

Offer to play favorite games and activities with the children of the deployed servicemember. Boys and girls who might be used to playing sports or doing arts and crafts with their deployed parent miss their usual activities -- and though family friends can't take the place of a parent, these outings can be a welcome distraction.

Alison Buckholtz is the author of "Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War” (Penguin/Tarcher). She has written about her experiences raising a military family in The New York Times, Real Simple, Parents, and Salon.com.

More information: http://www.StandingByBook.com.

Michelle Obama

It's no secret that I'm voting for Barack Obama this year but I haven't been very vocal about my opinion of his wife, our future First Lady.

As with every election, the spouse of our Presidential (and Vice-Presidential) nominees are just as scrutinized and judged as the nominee him/herself.

Michelle Obama will have an important role in The White House and I know, from seeing her on TV and reading her blog, that she will live up to that esteemed position and Americans will (and do) look up to her, just as they do the future President, and her husband, Barack Obama.

I received my ballot in the mail today (I'm an absentee voter) and I have never been so excited, so proud and so emotional about an election as I am this year. I will take my time in placing my vote, making sure to follow the instructions to the letter (so my vote doesn't get dismissed) and I will proudly - and impatiently - wait until the ballots are counted, until our country has made their final decision and our new President takes office.

I'm proud to be an American and I'm even more proud that our country generates the type of leaders and representatives that stand up for our rights, uphold our personal freedoms and stand by the words found in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.