Meet Karen Poisson!
She is an Air Force Spouse and Air Force Mom!
Karen met her husband in college when he came to Boston University to visit his brother during his winter break from the Air Force Academy. After doing a long-distance relationship for two years, Karen transferred schools to move out to Colorado. They got married after graduation and recently have celebrated their 27th anniversary. They have two daughters, the oldest being 25 and living in Seattle and her youngest is 22 and training to be a navigator in Pensacola. They did not expect to have a daughter in the Air Force!
During their life in the Air Force, she has gained some much wisdom and created so many memories that she is excited to share!
When asked about her most memorable moment as a Spouse, she said, “I think that my most memorable moment was getting my first article published.” She did not want to return to teaching and instead, decided to right an article about advice that was given to her by her spouse when they decided to get married! Soon after, it was picked up by one of the online military spouse magazine and she has been writing for military spouses ever since!
Separate from her writing for other military spouses, she also shares some important lessons she has learned and advice that she loves to give others from her personal experience.
Her biggest lesson during a deployment is, “I realized early on in our deployments that I couldn't do everything, and I certainly couldn't do it alone! I tried really hard to be the independent woman I was, but I realized that it was ok to ask for help.” As many other mil spouses know, being alone with the kids at home during deployment can become very overwhelming at times and it is important to rely on the support team around you. In an incident, she had a flat tire with pregnant with her second child and was on her way to a doctors’ appointment. She was able to call the squadron and they sent out four Airmen to help her. She says, “I truly learned that the military takes care of their own.”
Her advice to a 1st year Mil Spouse is, “Learn to roll with the punches and find military spouse friends.” The Military loves to throw curve balls every chance they get so being able to depend on gain support from people who truly understand what you are going through is so important.
Finally, we asked Karen about her favorite duty station and charm! “I would have to say that hands down it was SHAPE Belgium.” After her husband getting to travel around the world for 20 years, she was finally given the chance to go with him and was ecstatic! She loved living there and was able to travel to surrounding areas almost every weekend. She misses the travel and food!
Her favorite charm is one that was gifted to her and began her whole collection! The COW charm was the first charm given to her by her mentor and was the catalyst that pushed her husband to get her an actual bracelet when they were returning stateside and because his new job was going to be as an Ops Group Commander. Because it’s her first, it will always be her favorite!
