Eva Denson

Share your military spouse story:
My story is somewhat of a fairytale. I was a single mother raising three kids and working two jobs when I met my husband in 2013 on a dating app. He was the sweetest person that I had met in a long time. I had made several mistakes in dating in the past, and I wanted to make sure that this was the one. So I asked God to show me, and He did in many different ways. My husband and I began just hanging out as just friends. It was nothing serious. We were relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. It was not until maybe six months into us hanging out that he received orders to deploy. Now I didn't know much about Firefighters, but I did see that they didn't deploy for sure that was a Military term. So that is when I found out that he was an Active Duty Air Force Fire Fighter, I never had any intentions of becoming a Military Wife. But here I fell in love with my best friend, and he was about to leave the country, and I needed to do something. So I told him how I felt about him, and he didn't say much. I understood because he was also getting out of a bad relationship. So we went through the deployment. 2017, During another deployment, he received orders to Goodfellow Air Force Base, and he told me that he didn't want to leave North Carolina without the kids and me. So, we packed up and moved to Texas with him, and that is when we lived together for the first time in our relationship. He told me that he would send me home if I didn't like it. So, we made it a year in Texas, 2018 July, he proposes, and we married in November of that same year. If you are a faith-based person and do not think that marriage is for you because you have kids or you've been married, it just didn't work. I am here to tell you that you can get your Boaz!! It is possible to have love, joy, and happiness. You can also have your career and support him as well. He never asked me to live and breathe the Air Force. All my husband ever asked for was for love and support.

Share an example of your leadership experience within the military community:
An example of leadership in the military community was at Goodfellow Air Force Base when I was the Military Family Support Liaison. As the Military Family Support Liaison, it was my job to bring to society and the base together to provide military Spouses with employment and other resources needed that are necessary for their stay at Goodfellow Air force base. I was able to bring base leadership out to the out community and introduce them to the various programs for Military Families. As a team, we were able to work without 200 spouses during my tenure there with resume writing, networking, and interviewing skills.

Describe your involvement in the military community:
My involvement in the Military community consists of being a Key Spouse, being involved in the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence months of Awareness. Before our recent PCS, I was an Active Member of the All-Veterans Council, where I served as their Chaplain. Over the next few months, I plan to put together something geared towards the Single Airmen that will allow them to receive assistance with school supplies when school starts. I have an active Facebook Ministry where many of my followers from the Goodfellow Air Force base.

Describe how you support your community:
I support my community by doing weekly, and daily inspirations posted to my Ministry and Author pages. In addition, I have a book that was just released that talks about overcoming Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Assault.

What do you advocate for? Why?
I advocate for Childhood Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence and Single Parents. I advocate for those because as a woman that went through a childhood rape and was in a home where the adult was responsible, I want to be the woman that I needed as a little girl. I advocate for Domestic Violence because no one deserves to get beat every day or verbally abused every day. I want to be that nurse that didn't see all the signs 20 years ago. I advocate for Single Parents because I know what it's like to be tired and you must keep going because you are the only bread winner in the home. I know what it's like not to have any help or be afraid to ask for help and need it.

How have you spread the message of your platform/advocacy?
I have spread my message by finally releasing my book and using Facebook and Instagram to inform other of my advocacy.

What do you hope to accomplish with the AFI Military Spouse of the Year^® title?
What I am hoping to accomplish is to simply be Eva Denson. A title is just a title, it will never define who I am as a spouse or my standards as a Military Wife. It will however be something that I would have earned and accomplished on my own, blood, sweat and tears because of the heart that I have for the Military and its Community.