The 9th Move: Empty Houses, “Bees”, and Good-byes

I know you are probably expecting an update on the cross-country move. Well, all I can tell you is that:

my pretty new kitchen

1.) We are still negotiating repairs on our new house, which may end up delaying our move-in date. So so sad!! I’m choosing to hope for the best. Moving in July 1st or bust!!!

2.) JD and Dan are having trouble adjusting to the “bees”, and by bees, they mean GNATS.

He’s happy for a few moments, until the gnats start in on his sweaty face again.

and 3.) The big boys spent their last day in California playing with neighborhood friends and skateboarding while the movers are loading our truck. Caleb even got to go on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Monterey Aquarium with one of his best buds. (Thank you, Joy!!!)

Caleb and our sweet friends

Each time I looked down this street of mostly empty houses, the homes of my friends who all moved out a week before I did, I would feel that sad longing to live a regular life, where people only move occasionally, where you grow old with the same group of people.

Wouldn’t it be nice to say good-bye less often?

But that’s not our life. In our world, you don’t watch your kids grow up together. You spend a few years with each new friend, and then it’s on to the next town. And who knows what awaits us all there? We have only to trust God with our future because most of it is out of our control anyway.

Move-out week was hectic, but it ends suddenly, and before you know it, you are on new ground.

As I entered the health clinic of our new duty station, I found my way to the Tricare office. And I couldn’t help but think about how time has changed us. When we started this journey of military service, we were in our early 20s. Alan had finished his training and was ready to take on his first true duty assignment.

a very young us

At each new post, you have to go enroll in Tricare and have them assign you a doctor. Way back when we began, in a Texas installation, we stumbled in with clueless bravery and happiness. We were both timid and excited. It was all such an adventure. Well, Alan was the brave hard-charger. I was the timid one, probably asking to wait in the car.

But on this Tuesday, many moons later, I no longer feel timid. I called first. Why bother walking in there if the clinic doesn’t even have a Tricare office, I figured. I went without my husband, because I no longer need him to accompany me. Each post does things slightly differently though, so I had to figure this new one out. And when you do that, you have to inevitably provide a little background. Who are you? What do you need? Where are you coming from?

As it turns out, you now enroll on the phone, so that’s what I did. That’s new. But in the meantime, I asked the girl in the insurance office about the local system for health care. How are the doctors? Where’s the family clinic? Do you outsource for cardiology and pediatric neurology? I got my questions answered, and somehow it came up that I’ve moved 9 times already.

the 9th move

9 times. And suddenly I felt a bit like Tom Hanks in Castaway. You remember when he finally returns to civilization, after being stranded on that island for so many years? And they ask him questions, and it’s just like….where do you even begin to explain?

How do I explain? And people have begun to ask me how close we are to retiring from the military. Huh. How can this be? Where did the time go?

I can’t say that I do still feel like that 22-year-old girl, standing by the bus, hugging my soldier as he shipped out to Iraq because I don’t feel at all the same. I’m not the same. Alan is not the same. We are older, wiser, loaded down with children, far less emotional, and less extreme on all accounts. We are both hardened and softened, and we are nowhere near finished.

the first time I welcomed Alan home, 12 years ago

However, I am still just as ready to meet whatever comes our way as I was fourteen years ago.

Here’s to all the adventurers, the nomads, and the wanderers. May we always be learning, always seeking, and never shy away from the call of the ocean, or the Lord, or whatever calling it is that we follow on our path.

As for me and my house, we will follow the Lord. The government only thinks they call the shots. But it was never so plain who truly directs our steps as it was the day that I sat in a doctor’s office, anxiously awaiting a doctor who had just explained to me that I needed medicine for my high blood pressure and racing heart. Stress was killing me. Right then, while the PA got my prescriptions signed off on by the doctor, I got a text from Alan.

That text said that Alan’s next job was taking us home!!!  Just when I needed that news most! I could see God’s fingerprints so clearly. We had not even asked for a respite from our wandering, and yet we’ve been given two years at home. This happened once before. I never dreamed it would happen again. That morning, I felt the essence of soaring on the wings of eagles.

…30Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not grow tired, They will walk and not become weary.   Isaiah 40:31

Daniel’s tee-ball team, coached by Alan, taking it in for one last huddle

Today Alan, Joshua, and Caleb say their good-byes. Dan, JD, and I await them down South. Good-bye sweet California friends. Thank you for being there for us through the hardest job I’ve ever had. Thank you for loving us when we needed it so badly.

Bring on the next adventure!