It was ironic that just before leaving for our trip back east, I purchased this print from a shop on etsy [Naptime Diaries]:
Image from shop: click on it to be taken to listing!
Jeremiah 29:11 has always spoken to me. From my life in an abused home knowing He had a plan for me to my life as a Navy wife knowing He had a plan for us! I could not resist the purchase of this piece to be placed somewhere in the home where I would see it everyday. With all that we face, it is so easy to let go of the fact that someone greater than ourselves has a greater plan for us!
It has never meant so much as it does today after learning the news that yes, friends, Hubs will be deploying… with the United States Army. Put a Navy wife on a Marine Base and deploy her husband with the Army. So we went from Hooyah, to Oorah, to Hooah just like that.
We have tried to remain light-hearted about it, joking about stateroom’s in the desert and the differences between sand and sea, but when it boils down to it, I could not hold in the tears as Hubs told me this afternoon. They already gave him his paperwork… a battle record or something. We don’t know how long, but we are thinking it will be a year.
What I do know is at least we can begin to process the facts we have. We can make the most of the holidays! We should be able to celebrate our “official” anniversary! We will fill our days with little things to make them better and time together just being there with one another.
I’ll be sure to hang the beautiful print somewhere I will be reminded daily not to whine, and to look to Him for strength! Buckle up, it’s going to be quite a ride.
I write this to you all tonight, asking for your prayers, dear friends.
As we sat down for my birthday dinner (um, delicious Cheesesteak sandwiches!) Hubs’ phone dinged letting him now he had a voicemail. It was his boss. We went and got my phone which has much better reception than his. My first thought was that we’d be heading over to NOB and getting him on a MAC flight back home, two days into our trip. I was wrong.
As Hubs began telling his boss about his credentials and qualifications I thought nothing of it and walked into the house. I told Nan it was nothing- they just wanted to know when he met certain quals. NBD, right?
It was a mere moments later that Hubs was inside saying they wanted to deploy him IA (Individual Augmentee). He didn’t know where, he didn’t know when, he didn’t know for how long. That is the downside to working in the hospital: there is always a civilian who can step up and fill your shoes should a position need filled elsewhere in the world.
Happy Birthday.
We sat on the east coast waiting for the phone call we were hoping for: that his Boss was able to get his name out of the running. It was, after all, for a qualification he does not use on a daily basis or in his job, ever! Just something he did years ago when he was hoping for an internship.
Our time passed away in Norfolk and I anxiously waited on pins and needles just waiting for that call: the one telling us to get Hubs to the airport. The call never came.
Last night at the Navy Ball, we were standing during the cocktail hour talking with Hubs’ boss and his wife. Casual conversation. The XO and his wife came over and joined us in casual conversation. Nothing heavy, nothing work related. The CO joined in the conversation and the rest is kind of a blur. He pretty much said “How ’bout them apples, shipmate? So sorry!” I’m sorry, what? My heart sank.
The CO just as quickly left to make his rounds and we were left with Hubs’ boss. We asked for the all important deets, but all he knew was A-Stan. We don’t know when, or for how long. All I could say was a light-hearted “I hear it’s nice this time of year… Dessert Camo will definitely accentuate your features.”
As a military spouse I signed up to serve my country by supporting my husband in all of his career endeavors. A husband who was pretty much never going to deploy and would most likely always work in hospitals. A husband who signed up to serve his country in such a capacity. I recognize when one signs up to serve their country, they go where their country needs them. Right now, our country could use him in a very scary capacity for us. The limbo is what I hate. Hubs is not set to deploy as of right now, but his name is on a list… a list his superior officers could not prevent him from being on. Waiting to hear if he will deploy is one of the worst experiences in our relationship and my time as a military spouse.
Please pray for us, for answers (whatever the decision may be) and should the decision be to deploy, for strength for us both!
Autumn brings with it bountiful harvests and a time for thanksgiving. Last year, Hubs and I sat in a barely furnished house with no Macy’s Parade of football while one of those (soon to be discovered by us, DISGUSTING) processed turkey breast baked away in the oven. It was depressing and all I wanted to do was cry. We were celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas all in one weekend as deployment was days away. Military life finally made me realize how I missed my family, however dysfunctional they are. Oh, and trust me: you couldn’t script the crazy my family is.
When I knew we would be going home (home, home) this autumn I knew it was going to be a whirlwind! We’re meeting the movers, packing our stuff and heading back home (to California home). I knew the one thing I wanted was to celebrate the family I hadn’t seen in a year and that I might not see for the next two years! I planned a fun “feast of Thanksgiving” for the Sunday we’ll be in town. Then the question arose: since it’s a family gathering, do I invite my mother? The mother whom I haven’t spoken to since around November 2009? The mother who I was made to invite to my wedding, and who didn’t even bring a card? (I know it’s petty that I hold onto that, and I own that, but I mean: who goes to an event such as a wedding and doesn’t even take or send a card?)
I e-mailed Dr. J (my life coach, not the famous basketball player) and outlined the three possibilities
I do not send her an invitation. She catches word that there was a family event she was excluded from, but I’m already gone and she takes it out on my grandmother (since it will be at Nan’s house).
I send an invitation and she thinks I’m a “C U Next Tuesday” by having the audacity to invite her out of the blue. She thinks she is being spiteful and doesn’t come. (this is the best case scenario in my book)
I send an invitation and she thinks I’m a “C U Next Tuesday” but actually comes (out of spite, because she is hateful) and I have to slap a smile on and play it cool. (this is the worst case scenario in my book)
Dr. J called me this morning and we talked about it. After much prayer and discussion with both Nan and him, we came to a conclusion. I send her the invitation, fly into the freak show that is my family (Hubs calls it a war zone and I think he would take a year in A-Stan over a three-hour family get-together with my mother in attendance, true story, no exaggeration.) and let the pieces fall where they may. I do not own their reactions because quite frankly, when it comes to my family, there is no right.
The adorable invitation/notes sent out to family asking them to join us! Oh yeah, I use the very things I sell!
I’m not going to lie: her “note” is a little snarky and more to inform her it is happening than to invite her to join in. I’m trying God, I’m trying, just not hard enough when it comes to the woman who has hurt me for the last 27 years of my life. (Well, 27 years as of next week! Man, I’m getting old!)
Next step is to work out a survival strategy in the event she actually shows her face. If you are reading this thinking “what in the world is that girl’s problem?” think of it like this: my mother is worse than the worst mother-in-law horror story you have ever heard. I’ll be sure to share how it goes down and my survival strategy with you all once Dr. J and I come up with it!
How do you handle those horrific family members or in-laws? I am not looking forward to being home with my family. I am only very, very, very excited to be home with Nan!
Oh, and I thought I would make this my song of the week for Amber’s link up!
“Times have changed and times are strange
Here I come but I ain’t the same
Mama, I’m comin home
Times go by, seems to be
You could have been a better friend to me
Mama, I’m comin home
You took me in and you drove me out
Yeah, you had me hypnotized, yeah
Lost and found and turned around
By the fire in your eyes
You made me cry, you told me lies
But I can’t stand to say goodbye
Mama, I’m comin home
I could be right, I could be wrong
It hurts so bad it’s been so long
Mama, I’m comin home”
I’m gearing up and am ready for the inevitable emotional journey that will be going home this time.
*Oh, you didn’t think I was an Ozzy type of gal, huh? Well, I am!
My husband is not the most religious man. I try to get him involved with faith, and the easiest way to do this is by having him say a quick prayer before dinner. He usually says the same thing every night (which is fine with me):
Dear Lord, Bless this food and the hands that prepared it. Amen.
I would like him to be a little more into it. Somedays he thanks God for more blessings than just the food, but usually this is it.
Today, we had a fight about him messing with stuff in the kitchen he shouldn’t be – moving things around on me and constantly putting things back in the fridge that I had sitting out for specific reasons. One of those foolish, hormone induced arguments.
Tonight for our dinner time prayer he went with his usual and for some reason (hormones) I said “Is that all you’ve got, really?” So, he changed it and had me laughing, because he loves me and knows I don’t mean the nastiness most of the time. His new prayer:
Dear Lord, Bless this food and the hands that prepared it. Forgive those who trespass in the kitchen. Amen.
I love that man!
INSPIRE us friends! What are some of your mealtime prayers? Do you “wing it” or do you have set prayers?
</
The Young Retiree 