Photo By Senior Airman Cassandra Whitman | The Clifford family poses for a photo in their cozy family room, surrounded by the...... read more read more
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Without ever making eye contact, a football is thrown hard, spiraling through the air until it’s caught.
Joshua Clifford is on the throwing end, while his wife, Monica, is receiving and Clifford said they make a perfect team in everything they do.
During high school, Clifford grew up working four jobs; his day starting with one job at 3 a.m. and ending around 10 p.m.
After watching one brother, who was in-and-out of jail, and the other who showed little ambition, Clifford decided he didn’t want to be stuck in his small town forever. The Air Force was his ticket out.
Four years into his career, Clifford cross-trained from security forces to finance, setting off a chain reaction in his life, changing it for the better.
“When I was brand new to finance, the customer service and customer support sections had recently combined,” said Clifford, a 354th Comptroller Squadron budget analyst. “Monica (then a co-worker) was good at processing requests, while I was good at communicating with customers.”
This led to the first team Clifford would establish with Monica. Their work relationship blossomed outside of the office as they became good friends, and eventually more.
Monica separated from the Air Force in January 2004 and moved away. After realizing there was no “I” in team, they decided being apart wasn’t a successful move.
Monica moved back with Clifford in June 2004 and tied the knot two months later at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
Although Clifford’s original goal was to focus on “Team Husband and Wife,” Monica was a package deal as she had a 6-month old son. While Clifford never thought he wanted kids, he quickly changed the play and threw a Hail Mary, diving head-first into “Team Mom and Dad.”
The transition was challenging for Clifford, but he said Monica allowed him time to grow from a complete party-animal, to the more grounded and focused person he is today. They had a son together in August 2005, right before they embarked on their journey to Eielson.
“Our family really clicked when we moved to Eielson,” said Monica. “As the boys got older and we were able to do more with them, Josh really stepped up and I have always been able to count on him to take care of us. You’d think he was born to be a dad.”
The Cliffords now find time to manage their busy schedules between work, kids, sports and school. They both work in the 354th CPTS finance office, and even though they work in different sections, Josh explained they still work closely together and enjoy their work; strengthening the finance office as a whole.
“We bounce things off each other professionally and trust what the other says,” said Monica. “Many times we will be thinking the same thing and we realize we are very connected. We are each other’s biggest fans.”
The schedule the Cliffords have established is ever-changing; through the sports seasons and the classes they are enrolled in, you never know where you’ll see them next.
“We do our job first during the day,” said Josh. “Then it’s the kids sports and then it’s mom and dad time. We are both going for our master’s degree, so we squeeze in time for that where we can. It’s a lot of long nights and schooling on the weekend.”
Between juggling all of their family activities and going to school, the Cliffords also manage the Youth Bowling League on Eielson.
“It’s a lot of administrative work,” said Josh. “We have two sessions with about 40 children who bowl every week. We pay the bowling alley, take care of the by-laws and gather the awards to give out at the end of the season.”
With everything the Cliffords have going on, they always find time for fun activities to do together as a family.
“We are all involved with sports in some way,” said Josh. “We even have a family Fantasy Football league that’s just for us. Whoever wins for the week gets to pick what dinner will be on each Friday.”
The Cliffords have enjoyed baseball games, waterparks and many rock concerts as a family unit over the years, and Josh said he is quite fortunate for the family he has.
“Who I am today is a testament to Monica’s patience with me, because she gave me time to grow from a partier into a father,” Josh explained. “I love that we can be contemporary in our parenting; we’re a fun little bunch.”
| Date Taken: | 02.02.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.18.2017 00:56 |
| Story ID: | 222379 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 9 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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