This Is Me

I live in a world that is not my own that I succumb to in many ways. I live by a code that leaves me to find joy in the small things in life. Not take advantage of anything. Love and learn from everyone I meet in my journey. And especially to learn what it means to be selfless in more ways I thought possible. I am a Army wife. It is what I do. I have a love hate relationship with what I do. But do I regret it? No way.

Friday, March 21, 2014

We have an announcement!!!

AAAANNNDDDD....... it's not what you think....
No, I'm not pregnant.
But we've got super cool news just the same!

Have you heard the saying that to see God's sense of humor, tell Him your plans?
You know those moments when you think things are headed in a good direction, life is good, comfortable, no foreseeable changes in the near future that would deter you from where you are headed, etc...??
If you are military or have any experience with it, you know that's asking for trouble....there is no such thing as a free clear path or direction.

In the last post I wrote about all our excitement, fears, apprehensions about John getting out of the Army and going back to school.
Yeah, well, about that......plans change?

So, with all that out of the way, we are moving to Europe!
Yup, no typo.

While we were focused on compiling college transcripts and rewriting resumes, getting ready for "the big change,"
John came down on orders, family accompanied, to Baumholder, Germany for a three year minimum tour.

Holy cow.
Wha?!?!?

When John first joined the Army, one of the things people warned me about over and over, is how often we'd move.
Aaannndddd......we never have (the move to CO during his deployment was voluntary, so on our dime, not military sponsored).
We've been at Ft. Bragg since John joined back in 2006 and besides deployments, we have never been stationed anywhere else.
We've begged to move.
Especially before Brynlee was born, we seriously begged to move anywhere, just cause we wanted to see other places, people, and cultures.
We even begged to be sent overseas since we had no children and nothing tying us down.
The answer we always got was either watching our friends be sent off to a new locale or John coming down on orders for deployment after deployment, now totaling three, the shortest deployment being a year.

Bogus.

After this third deployment, with no indication of getting an opportunity to go anywhere else or do anything else, we opted to take control and set our own change of pace by John getting out of the Army, moving back to Colorado to be close to both our families, with me going back to work while John finished his degree.
So we went through all the steps to go about this transition, even John getting offered the Commander's Scholarship with the option to come back and rejoin the Army after he got his degree as an Officer.
Things were looking good and we were all but 100% confident in what we were doing and where we were headed...

Then John called me one morning.
That alone was a red flag because during the work day, he never calls unless something is going on.

When he told me the news I didn't know what to think.
My main thought was, NOW?!
Why NOW?!
After all these years of us begging to be moved, never moving, so now we have a child and are choosing  to get out of the Army and THIS!?
Then I immediately went to the computer and Google mapped Baumholder, trying to recollect my geography studies of 7th grade (shout out to Mr. Lee!), and piece together what this news really meant.

Not only does it mean reenlistment for the next 36+ months, but it also meant only a four hour drive to Paris, France.
Marriage retreats to Edelweiss?
Prearranged weekend getaways to go skiing in the Alps?
Hmmm......
Yup, sign me up.

Then came all the fears.
Taking my kid overseas? What does that even mean?
What about the cats we left in Colorado?
Car?
Would I get to work if I wanted too?
What about my career?
I don't know ANY German.
We were talking about having another baby in the near future to complete our family, so now what, have a kid in Germany?
I don't know anyone there, what about my friends?!
Probably usual concerns anyone would have when moving, but totally amplified by the fact that I've never had to do this before AND because my Bragg buddies and family would be on the other side of the world from me and for once I would literally have to figure out everything on my own.
Maybe this was time to see if I could do it?
Make new friends on my own.....
Break away from the comfort of my friends and family that have sacrificed so much to support me and our little family...
I can do this.
It might not be great all the time, but I can do this!

Never mind a chance in a lifetime to see the world and also expose my child to places and cultures I would probably never be able to show her otherwise.

What's been interesting about this whole situation is that just because we got the orders, for once, it doesn't mean we have to take them. Usually when military families come down on these orders, they don't have a choice, you go where you are told.
Because we were already in the process of getting out it set us up to be perfectly capable of following through with those intentions without any consequence to John's military career.
But man, would we ever get a chance to do this again?
Would we regret it if we didn't do this?

Ultimately, yes.

Proof that blessings come in spades, the same week we came down on these orders, a family we had become friends with during deployment #2, moved back to the US from Germany and we've been totally picking their brains ever since.
Like, hardcore, poor people.
Bless them.
It was so strange how this conundrum kept creeping its head into our world.
We hadn't even told our families about this opportunity yet and we kept running into complete strangers that, through conversation, had been stationed there, lived there, been born there and not a single one had anything negative to say about it.
Not a thing.

After lots of talking, praying, talking, praying, confiding, talking, praying...repeat.
We decided that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and even if John did finish his degree and go back into the Army, we would not be guaranteed an opportunity like this again.

 So, on Wednesday, March 12th, Brynlee and I drudged out in the rain to the 42nd K9 Kennels and watched SSGT Christian, reenlist into the US Army for another three years and some change.

We are officially going to Europe!
We're so scared.
We're excited.
We're blessed.
We're cautiously optimistic.

We were given the choice to live on or off post and have opted to live on post so we can get our bearings among "our own people" before we venture out into the local economy.
We moved into an apartment here in NC in preparation to move back to Colorado, knowing it was totally temporary until the move.
This is the first time I've ever lived in an apartment, and the first time since college I've had to deal with "wall sharing" neighbors.
But the on post housing at Baumholder is apartment style housing meaning, things really won't be any different than what we're already living in now.
Funny how things work out, huh?

As of right now, John will have to report to Germany in early September and hopefully B and I will be close behind (yes, I'll somehow have to get me, a 2.5 year old and two cats to Europe by myself, sigh....)
As excited as we are for this opportunity and what it brings we ask that you continue to keep our little family in your thoughts and prayers as well as our extended family.
It's bringing a lot of changes to us but also to grandparents, aunts, uncles, GREAT aunts and great uncles, cousins especially, who are going to be missing their Brynlee-baby terribly.

Stay tuned for more details as they come.
We're excited for this adventure to begin and are excited for the opportunity for our family to take on this challenge the THREE of us.

Europe, here we come!