We Have an Announcement....

Yesterday was a day filled with a roller coaster of emotions. Alex received "the call" about where we will be stationed next.

Let me just start off by saying that we were and still are in complete and utter shock. We had to list 6 choices this year and we didn't a single place on our list (well in fairness, it was really only 5 choices because we listed one that we knew wasn't a possibility, but we tried anyway). We had been told we wouldn't be able to go back to San Diego so here is our list that we submitted: 1. Pendleton (even though we knew it wasn't a possibility we wanted them to know we'd still like to be out there) 2. Hawaii 3. North Carolina 4. South Carolina 5. Quantico, Virginia 6. Pentagon

Well, from what I've heard so far, there were no Pendleton spots for Alex's rank and job. I haven't heard of anyone getting Hawaii yet. A friend of ours got North Carolina (but it wasn't on his list either). I haven't heard of anyone getting South Carolina. 5. I think 1 or 2 people were given the Quantico/DC area and a few people were given Okinawa (which we almost were given as well).

So, those of you who are familiar with Marine Bases might realize that I haven't mentioned Yuma or 29 Palms. We can't go to Yuma because the JAG position that takes care of Yuma is taken care of through Miramar. So, by process of elimination, we are going back to 29 Palms, California.

I have such mixed feelings about this. I LOVED our time out there. I had amazing friends, a great community and I learned how to be a mommy there. However, we did not have school aged children or an avid gymnast when we were there and those things are now proving to make things rather difficult. We don't want to miss out on having an amazing community (you'd have to have lived there before to understand), but we also have big decisions to make as the closest gym is in Palm Springs (over an hour and a half away) and the public schools out there aren't an option.

So we'd love prayer for wisdom as to whether we should send Madison to the private school out there (which is about 45 minutes from base) or if I need to really revisit the idea of homeschooling (which I've never felt called to do, despite my background in education). We did find out that there is a van that picks up and drops off from the base for the private school which is amazing and would be a huge blessing. Then, there is the whole gymnastics challenge. We think we may have found a workable option last night when we called the gym, but we are still working on those details. Please pray they pan out, as the lady we spoke to seemed to believe that Madison's level would have practice only on Thursdays and Saturdays. We could make that work.

On a huge plus, it will be great to be near our parents again and friends that we haven't been able to see since we left San Diego. We will be pretty much 2 hours from anything and everything.

So, anyway....that's our announcement. There were A LOT of tears and heartache yesterday, but we are trusting that God is sending us there with a purpose and that He will work out the details down to the smallest one just perfectly!