Proverbs 16:9 "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps."

This week has been eventful in the "future plans" department. Mike spoke with a Marine Corp career counselor on Tuesday. This person was also surprised Mike was passed over for promotion, and did not know for certain why, telling him that "his fit rep looks good". We learned if he wanted to try and stay in the Marine Corp he should volunteer for a deployment of some sort aka "IA", and write a letter to the promotion board stating his plan in hopes to be reconsidered for promotion. However only 3% of people being looked at for the second time do in fact get promoted. This news pretty much ruled out the "staying in" option for us. We've always held to a principal that if Mike deployed it would be b/c he needed to go with his unit or if he was selected to do so by his superiors. We are not of the mind set that volunteering for a deployment in hopes that it will gain some sort of credibility is a good idea, though many people do it.

Up until last Friday the 20th, our plan was to stay in Florida. Mike was going to get into the Marine Reserves, apply for a simulator job, and then transition to the Navy reserves. And I would work part time for supplemental income as needed. Mike has spoke with many people on how to make this happen and had a plan to execute it. This is still a viable option. But friday Mike found out some interesting news.

Prior to our decision to stay here we were looking into the the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve squadrons. We were considering ones closer to family, close to a good church we knew of, and ones with an aircraft Mike was interested in. We never really found the perfect one. We were considering C17 squadrons b/c Mike thought he would enjoy their missions. We weren't crazy about the locations. We looked into an Ohio squadron, close to family, but he wasn't crazy about the aircraft. Another turn off for us was to get into these squadron's you have to "rush" them much like a fraternity and we will readily admit that we aren't, especially on first acquaintance, known for our social graces or being especially cool, or making others think we are cool. So we weren't really sure how to handle that.

Well anyway Mike found out last Friday that the Dayton, OH squadron that we checked out has decided to stand up a C17 unit. How amazing it that. A location and aircraft we were looking into. To put the icing on the cake this squadron had decided to come to VT-3 at NAS Whiting field (mikes squadron) to do some recruiting. What....???? recruiting????? This is unheard of...... We couldn't believe it! At first we were a little annoyed almost that this was messing up our newly decided plan to stay here. Then we moved to..... well God must be telling us to move to OH.... Then we said "ok, this is a great opportunity to learn more about all this Airforce Reserve stuff with minimal effort on our part. Lets get some good questions together and take full advantage of this opportunity". So we did, kind of. Well.... actually Mike ended up missing the guys b/c he got stuck in KS on the day they were here b/c of some bad weather. Thankfully he was stuck with his XO who told the guys that "his top recommendation for them was currently stuck in KS with him". It turned out to be a real blessing b/c Mike had some one on one time with them the morning before they left. It went well and they said they would be glad to have him as part of their squadron.

Mike plans to go up to OH the first weekend of March to check it out and check out a church there to see if we would be a good fit. If all goes well we will start the mound of paper work that is required, that can take 1.5 - 2 years to complete. Thankfully we have a year and a half before Mike's Marine Corp commitment is up. We see God's kind provision in this and are thankful to Him for guiding our steps.

Sunny Florida?

While my parents were here we took them to the edge of the land to view the Gulf. It was 60 degrees and windy, but there were still a couple people there with swim suits on, crazies. I always imagine in my mind these are people from far north that planned a "tropical vacation" in FL to escape the winter only to find out it's winter in FL also, and have decided to "enjoy" it while they are here. It reminds me of something I would have tried to do about 7 years ago, when "the south" was a foreign place to me, and I thought any place with a beach on the ocean had to be warm and cozy year round. I think my dad struggles with facing this reality as well. He commented several times on the weather/temperature and would say "I thought i came to FL." My standard replay became "it's winter in FL too". :)

Unpacking

We are in the throws of it. We are finding that we are not only spending our time unpacking, but also setting up things that are necessary for a new home( we'll call them projects). We seem to take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Now that Mema and Papa are gone it may be closer to a 1:1 ratio. They were a tremendous help at the daily chores like dishes, and the projects like putting up lights. We are slowly working at a steady pace knowing it will end eventually. I thought we were chipping away at our chores joyfully, but this morning Shiloh asked "Mommy are you worn out?" I suppose my body language was communicating something other than what I was desiring. I'm hoping Christ will return, that will certainly put an end to it. Not that we are suffering severely or even at all, but rather the greatness of anticipating His return is sweet.

Unpacking

We are in full swing of unpacking. No pic's sorry! I'm so thankful to have my parents here to help, it has been a huge blessing in many ways! They leave Sat. morning :( they will be missed by all. We do have many of the rooms in functional order, we started with bathrooms and the kitchen, do the the nature of them and the services they provide. Then the master and on to the kids rooms today. It has by far been the smoothest move we've done. Now we get to start playing the lottery with all the random, poorly labeled boxes that currently fill our garage. Still no internet provider, but we have been able to occasionally get a neighbors signal. I don't think that's illegal? Well off to get some ZZZZ.

We Made it!!

We made it! We are staying at Whiting Field, there was "no room at the inn" at NAS P-cola. This works out for us since it's closer to the house and the rooms are very nice here. We got a suite, which has 2 bedrooms, living room and kitchenette. We are pleased with our accommodations. We get to see the house this morning, very exciting! We of course drove by last night on our way through town, what a blessing it will be. God was extreamly kind to us in our travels and Mike and I both thought, "we're here already?". Mike specifically said, "that wasn't painful enough". We are thankful!!!!!

Living in a suit case?

I mean living out of a suit case. There's really not much a person "needs" that can't fit in a suit case anyway. This will be our life for the next couple weeks. We are officially homeless, but have been taken in by some charitable friends for a couple days here in NC, and then off we go to FL. I'm anticipating it to take 2-3 days since it is 15 road hours, and the vehicles are so loaded they will need frequent breaks, we might need them as well? Any prayer during this time of transition on our behalf will be a great blessing.