During Veterans Month, we honor those who have served our country, but military service also shapes the lives of the families who stand beside them.

For some, home is a place of comfort while a loved one is deployed. For others, it represents the excitement and uncertainty of starting over in a new community. And for many, home is less about an address and more about the people who make it meaningful.

This Veterans Month, GAAR is sharing personal perspectives from REALTOR® and Affiliate members who have experienced military service through different roles within their families. Through the eyes of a mother, spouse, child, and veteran, these stories explore how service, sacrifice, and family shape the meaning of home.

While each experience is unique, they share a common connection: the importance of having a place and people to call home.

A Veteran's Perspective - Christopher Shain Tanner, REALTOR®

For military service members, home is the place you carry with you and the place you fight to get back to. During my deployment to Iraq in 2007, home was a photo in my pocket, a voice on a crackling phone line, and a promise that normal life was still waiting for my return. Home is where your family breathes easier. It is the kitchen table where homework gets done without you, the driveway your kids learn to ride bikes in, the front door you walk through in uniform and finally get to just be Dad.

Military families move often, sacrifice much, and rarely complain. A home gives them one thing the military cannot issue: real roots. It is stability for a spouse, safety for children, and proof that the sacrifices built something lasting. That is what home means. It is not walls and a roof. It is the people and culture waiting inside for them.

A Mother's Perspective - Carmen Cavnar, REALTOR®

While my son Sebastian was deployed, family celebrations left a void in my heart. I was smiling, but I was sad. My baby wasn’t there. I felt guilty celebrating, like I needed to share his loneliness so he wouldn’t be alone in it.

FaceTime helped, but I couldn’t hug him. I sent care packages with his favorite snacks so he could feel a little piece of home.

When he surprised me by coming home, I held on so long. My heart felt complete again.

I wanted to do a welcome home celebration, but he needed quiet and time. Fellow brokers in our association who are military parents helped me understand that homecoming meant adjusting, too.

To me, home means being together, being loved, and knowing that whatever you’ve been through, your family is there to welcome you, give you time, and walk through it with you.

A Spouse's Perspective - Jasmin Sanchez, REALTOR®

When we bought our home, our daughter was 21 months old and we had twin boys on the way. As a veteran spouse, I’m grateful we could use a VA home loan to buy without a down payment. That took one big worry off our plate. With so much about to change, I loved being able to picture all three of our kids growing up here.

As an Albuquerque Realtor®, it’s been an honor to help military families navigate PCS moves to and from Kirtland Air Force Base. Saying goodbye to friends, figuring out schools, and sometimes choosing a home from miles away can be overwhelming. I’m grateful I get to make one part of that move a little easier.

To me, home is where we can close the door, take a deep breath, and feel like we belong. It’s where we talk through the hard days and gather around the kitchen table to celebrate the good ones.

A Daughter's Perspective - Faith Begay-Holtrop, Affiliate Member | Lender

Growing up in a military family, home was wherever we were living at the time. Moving was part of life, and every few years we'd find ourselves starting over somewhere new.

My parents never owned a home. Not because they didn't want to, but because they never thought they could afford one. Looking back, I wonder if things might have been different had they known about the options available to them.

Today, as a mortgage lender, I see opportunities my parents didn't know existed. VA loans offer eligible borrowers benefits like no down payment, no monthly mortgage insurance, and competitive interest rates.

I still think about how owning a home might have changed things for our family. My parents worked hard, and I wish they'd known homeownership was within reach. They could have been building equity over those years, giving themselves and our family more options down the road.

Honoring Service and the Meaning of Home

These four perspectives remind us that home is more than a physical place. It is the comfort of family, the stability of putting down roots, the joy of returning to loved ones, and the opportunity to build a future.

This Veterans Month, GAAR extends its gratitude to Christopher Shain Tanner, Carmen Cavnar, Jasmin Sanchez, and Faith Begay-Holtrop for sharing their personal experiences. We also thank all veterans and military families for their service, sacrifices, and resilience.

As REALTORS® and Affiliates, we recognize the importance of helping individuals and families find a place to call home, especially those whose service has taken them far from it.

Advancing, Belonging, Community & Diversity Committee
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