To say that we have had a busy spring would be the understatement of the century. I know that everyone has their own busyness so I’m sure mine may seem not very interesting or challenging to some. For us it was…..a whirlwind. Our travels have included the following states/countries: California; Colorado; Vancouver, Canada; Alaska; Texas; Louisiana. Whew! That makes me tired just typing it…not to mention DRIVING to most of it! Now, don’t get me wrong. We LOVE IT! We truly enjoyed all of our travels this spring. It was just a lot crammed together. So, let’s start at the beginning.
Some of you may know and some may not. David is in the Air Force Reserves. After he separated from active duty in January ’08 he was still wanting to “do his part” for our country. In June of ’08 there was an opportunity presented to him to join the Air Force Reserves at a unit in California. He jumped in and has been doing it ever since. He is a traditional reservist which means he works once a month and 2 weeks a year for the AF Reserves. It was a small sacrifice when we lived in California. Don’t get me wrong. We missed him on the weekends (I esp. missed the help when the boys were super little) but he got to come home in the evening so we still saw him a little bit. Now that we are in Colorado and he is still serving in his unit in California it’s a little more……challenging. I tell you all this to say, since November once a month he has been traveling to California for his duty. Around the beginning of February David came to me and said he needed to do his two weeks and was looking at doing it in April and he wanted me and the boys to go to California with him. I was all in J. This meant we would get to go see our friends and our church family! Exciting! So we started planning. We decided we would drive to California and we warned all of our friends that we were coming. The date was set and all the preparations were made. We were leaving on April 22nd.
As April 22nd is approaching we came to the final decision it was time to let our first babies find a new home. Now this was HARD! We had been talking about finding a new home for Reese & Rusty for quite some time now. Actually we had talked about it for at least 2 years. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t decide that this was best. In all honesty, it should have been done 2 years ago. It was EXTREMELY stressful having the 2 dogs with the boys being little. But we endured thinking it would get easier. We finally came to the realization that if we wanted to travel with David then we needed to let go of our furry babies. We found a wonderful family that was so excited to be chosen to get our babies. They wanted both of them and that was REALLY important to us. So, on April 21st I let my first babies go. Rusty was our first anniversary gift….Reese came along 2 years later. When we let them go they were 9 & 7. It was a sad day for me, but truly it was for the best.
The following day we departed for California. We had decided we would drive hard on Friday & Saturday so we could be in church for Easter. We were excited to be able to worship with our family in Lompoc. Work for David began the next day. Then Tuesday was an exciting day for us. We found out the month before that David was selected to be promoted to Major. Tuesday was the day for his ceremony. He didn’t want to make a big deal out of it and didn’t really tell anyone…one of the things I love about him is how humble he is. I didn’t really want it to pass without it being a big deal so we were able to compromise. The boys & I would be there (obviously) and he invited our minister & his wife to attend as well. (There were lots of military people there that I have no idea who they are!) It was such a special day. His commander said some truly amazing things about David and his work ethic but also about his faith in our Creator. Then David spoke. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about what he said. He gives all the glory to God; a humble, man of God. He gave the boys some fun toys and they wanted to play with them RIGHT THEN & he honored me with the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. He loves me so! I have no idea how I got to be blessed to be his wife, but am so grateful! When you are able to witness or participate in one of these type of ceremonies your heart swells with patriotism. These men & women are more than willing to serve our county; more than willing to give their life so we have our “deserved” freedom. It is humbling and moving. I am so thankful for David; his love of God, our country and our family.
Disclaimer: I did not take the pictures. We were in a secure building….so I couldn’t have my camera.
I will continue with our spring adventures on the next entry.
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