Meet the Bailey family: Christy and Adam, who’ve been married for 13 years, and daughters Grace (13) and Evie (10). The Baileys renewed their vows on their ten-year anniversary, which gave them the less rushed, well-planned dream beach wedding they desired…

Army life is definitely unique. There are so many things that only a military family will ever experience and understand.

LEARNING TO COPE

We’ve lived in five different postings around the UK. We’ve made some fantastic memories and friends who’ve become family for life – yet we’ve had some really trying times too. As a family, coping is what we do best. We learned from a very early stage of our married life that we can survive anything. Adam was injured by an IED in Afghanistan in 2009 – two days after Grace’s first birthday. This led to six months of treatment in hospital, a one-year (away from home) rehabilitation at Headley Court and little did we know, a further three year battle with PTSD that hit hard in Kinloss, four years after the injury.

“We learned from a very early stage of our married life that we can survive anything.”

FAMILY SUPPORT

We find living away from relatives emotional at times, especially my mum as she’s very poorly. It’s hard when Adam goes away too, but we always put on our stiff upper lip and make the best we can of the situation.

WHERE WE LIVE

Our favourite posting was our last one, it was so hard to move away from the place we called home. However, we can now be excited that when our military journey ends, Ripon will become our forever home. I’ve embraced each posting with my childcare or photography profession; but this time, I’ve been so lucky to land my goal job as a teaching assistant in a beautiful local school, just five weeks after moving down south and during the pandemic!

ADVICE TO OTHERS

If I could send any helpful advice to new families, it would be to enjoy every single opportunity, explore your surroundings to the full and know that you don’t have to live surrounded by magnolia – get the paint out – and make life colourful!

Whether married or single, parent, partner, cousin or child of a soldier, we want you to tell us all about your army family. Follow @ArmyandYou on social media for more stories.

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