Right Where the Lord Wants Us

So, let's pick up where we left off.  Last I posted, my husband had been unexpectedly deployed, my grandmother had passed away, and then a few weeks later my grandfather passed away.  And, the Lord used that time in my life to teach me so much, mainly a total dependence on Him.

So, that brought us to the beginning of February.  In fact, we left OK on Feb. 4th, Kinley's birthday, to head back home.  Nathan was still gone, and we still weren't sure when he would be home.  Luckily, the rest of the deployment went by fairly uneventfully.  I finished teaching the Bible study on the book of James the week that Nathan returned home. God's timing is always perfect! As it all worked out, between people at church and people from the kid's school providing meals for us, I NEVER had to cook a full meal for my kids while Nathan was gone.  Such a blessing.  So,  Nathan came home at the very end of February.  During his R&R time, one of his brothers came to visit.  Then, during Spring Break, my parents came to visit for a week.  Nathan was working really long days to get reports and things done at work.  Then, two days before Easter, bad news again.

They were sending Nathan back...again.  At least this time, we had a little bit more notice.  This time, we had a week to prepare.  They told us it would only be for a month.  Of course, that was not the case. But, by this time I had learned to not believe it till I saw the whites of his eyes.  Nathan left, and again, I was the single mom of four small kids.  This time, at least, there were no tragedies.  We had a fairly uneventful deployment.  Well, except that Nathan missed all of the end of school year events, programs, Brianna's birthday, etc.  Of course, the month that Nathan was supposed to be gone turned into longer, and he didn't come home until the very end of May.  And, all during that time I was dealing with trying to either sell or rent out our AK condo.  (We finally decided to just rent it out again.  Three year contract....couldn't pass that up.) 

During the time Nathan was gone, he was told that they were trying to give him a new assignment.  Would he like to go to either Beale AFB, CA (with six month deployments about once a year) or Grand Forks AFB. ND (very few deployments)?  At first, we said we wanted to stay in place if at all possible.  We absolutely loved our church family and school, my wonderful house, and didn't want to leave.  But, the possibility of fewer deployments, of having my husband home more, was something we couldn't turn down.  Nothing in this life is worth more than having our family together.  So, we said to put us in the slot for Grand Forks AFB, ND.  We were told that if in fact it did go through, his training would be at Beale AFB starting in November.  So, we thought we had plenty of time to get ready once receiving the final assignment sometime in the summer.  But of course, it didn't happen that way. 

First of all, they said that if we were going to get the assignment, we would get it by the end of June.  Well, that came and went, and no assignment.  So, Nathan checked into it, and they were still handing out assignments, and we would get our assignment by mid July.  Well, to make a long story short, we got our assignment at the end of July....and we had to be in CA for training at the beginning of October.  CRAZY!!!  We had seven weeks total to get everything ready to move.  And, our vacation to Florida was scheduled during that time.  But, we made it happen, and we left our beloved home in Warner Robins, GA on September 15th.  Just before leaving town, we found a nice military couple to rent our home for their stay in Warner Robins.  So, at least that it all taken care of. 

So, where are we now?  We are living in a small three bedroom TLF (Temporary Lodging Facility) on base here at Beale AFB.  But, I am not complaining.  We are all together.  Nathan is learning a new aircraft.  One that will provide a great skill for him when we leave the Air Force.  We will be moving to Grand Forks, ND in January.  That should be fun...and COLD!!!    We are homeschooling Brianna (2nd grade) and Nate (Kindergarten).  That just made more sense than them being in three schools within one school year. And, we are loving homeschooling.  Both kids are doing so well.  Brianna is so smart and does most of her work cheerfully and with ease.  Nate, on the other hand, doesn't love school, but he really is doing well.  He surprises me with how easily he is picking up reading.  We have only consistently done homeschool for a little over a month, but he is already reading simple words.  We have found a nice little church here with many families with small children, which is great for us.  We know that we are right where the Lord wants us.  We miss our real families as well as our church family in GA so much, but we know that the Lord had us there for a specific time and purpose, and now He has a new place for us to serve.  We are excited about what our future holds.