It's nearing the end of January and I'm realizing that we only have, probably 4-5 months left in Tennessee! I have lots of emotions...I'm scared, nervous, sad, happy, ready for adventure all at the same time. Josh will commission May 5th, and graduate May 6th. Right now we know nothing after that, so some days it just really bugs me to not be able to plan for the future. The next step after graduation is BOLC, or Basic Officer's Leadership Course (for friends and family who don't know military terms!) and we won't know what date he gets for that course until April! Which makes it very hard to plan! The earliest date possible is sometime the first week of June, which would mean we will leave around May 20th. (which I'm now realizing is less than 4 months now! Aaaahh) We do know that we will be headed to Ft. Sill in Lawton, OK, just not sure of the exact moving date yet. Training at Ft. Sill will last about 5 months and then we are hoping to be headed to Ft. Hood, TX after that for our permanent station. We also won't know what our permanent station will be until March or April. Josh has put in an ADSO (Active Duty Service Option) for that station which hopefully gives us a better chance to get it. Basically an ADSO just means that you give the Army a certain amount of years on top of your existing contract (4 years upon graduation) to try and secure a spot at the duty station of your choosing. So if the Army decides to use Josh's ADSO we'll be up to 7 years committed to the Army! Which is really nothing, considering he's planning on staying in for 20+ years and then retiring!
So now my "packing mind" is starting to kick in and I'm looking around our 483 sq. ft. apartment trying to mentally/physically group things together to make packing easier! When I was single, I usually re-organized and went through everything probably every 3-4 months. We've been married almost 6 months, so I guess I'm due for a little re-organizing! With the snow day and my day off from work, that's what I plan to do; spring cleaning and re-organizing! The thought of packing/unpacking and moving hundreds of miles TWICE in less than 7 months is a little daunting, but I think I'm up for the challenge. Since we've been married, I just feel a new sense of strength and independence (getting used to trying to do and take care of things on my own without running to Josh for help) which I guess is just God's way of preparing me for the day when Josh is gone for a year at a time and I have to do things by myself!
Even though May 20th seems very close, we are really hoping that we get the earliest date possible for BOLC. Because after graduation, Josh won't start getting paid until we get to Ft. Sill. So if we don't get a BOLC date until July or August...that's 3 months with no pay check....which reeeeeeeeally scares me when I think about it! That will really be a test of my faith if it comes down to that. Because even now I'm telling God, "Lord I trust you, but I sure do hope you provide for us!" There's a little bit of that Israelite-itis I was talking about the other day! Haha! For now we're just trying to stay on budget and save money in the case that we end up with no paycheck for several months.
Well I guess I better get off the couch and go clean now!
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