Two Big Announcements!

Pin It There are a couple of things I've wanted to share with you, but life in the Army has taught me that nothing is ever certain until it's in writing…and even then you can never be too sure!

The first announcement is that my husband was promoted on February 1st!  It's very exciting news and I'm so very proud!  He was selected to advance a year early, which happens to only about 3% of the population!  It's a result of many years of hard work and plenty of long days and weekends away.

His unit held a small ceremony for him on Friday where his promotion orders were read and his commander removed his old rank from his uniform.  It's tradition for the spouse to "pin" the new rank onto the uniform (or in this case, Velcro it!)  Maia decided she could handle the job though and pinned her Daddy all by herself.

It was a really nice ceremony and especially exciting for me because it was the first one I have ever seen!  When we met six years ago, he had only just been promoted so this was the first time for us as a couple.  Add Maia to the mix and it was very special.

A new rank means new job opportunities and more schooling.  Which leads me to my next announcement...

In an unexpected turn of events, we've received orders to move.  One minute they said we were staying in Germany for another 18 months…and then next, we're only a couple months away from packing up.

Crazy.

We've been here since November 2007 and have loved our experience.  Sure it can be trying at times - there are so many things we take for granted in the States that we don't have available here! - but we have made so many incredible memories.  Leaving is bittersweet for the both of us.  This has been our home for so many years - Maia was born here! But with the US cutting troops overseas, we may never have the chance to come back.

However, my husband has been selected to attend the Naval War College in Newport and it is an incredible honor.  The Army was only allotted 4 slots in his field for this coming school year and he was one of the applicants chosen.

So while it is sad to leave Germany, we knew it would happen eventually.  We just weren't prepared for how quickly it would happen!  We received the news a couple weeks ago, but we had to wait until his orders were processed before we said anything about it.  It's been so hard not to talk about it!

It looks like we'll be leaving sometime this spring, which doesn't leave us a lot of time to organize and purge before we pack up our stuff.  There are also so many places we still want to visit (or revisit!) but we no longer have a year and a half to travel leisurely.  We will have to set our priorities for trips and jump on every free weekend to get the most out of our last few months.

New England is beautiful - Romas grew up there and I went to college there.  We are excited to be back in familiar territory again, within driving distance to friends and family who we haven't seen regularly in 5 years.  We are expecting to have quite a few visitors next year!

The life of a military family is never boring or dull!  One minute you think you have a long-term plan…and the next, everything changes!  At least this is a good change - one that we are looking forward to!

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