The beginning of the end

Did I spell beginning right? It's one of those words I can never seem to remember or get correct.

Anyways, today marked a monumental moment in our lives. Today was the day that our possible future in the Active Duty Navy jumped out of our hands.

As we've been a Reserve family for the last two and a half years, two of those years have consisted of our struggle to switch over to active duty. Two long and emotionally/mentally/spiritually/physically exhausting years. It's nearly impossible to explain the type of hardships our marriage, and relationship prior to getting married, endured because of this ridiculous challenge. The stress and unpredictability of not knowing whether our dreams were ever going to be reached was unbearable at times. We've had multiple back up plans since day one, but we knew we needed to exhaust this option before giving up on it. Our entire hearts have been into this choice to go Active Duty yet it seemed so unattainable and so far fetched until now.

Today was the farthest we've gotten in this process. And it's the last step in the process before we could throw our hands up and just let whatever happens, happens.

Today Doc Handsome went down to MEPS (the same place recruits and prior service members go) to submit his entire package to go Active Duty. He spent the night at the hotel in Los Angeles last night and woke up at 3am this morning to take a shuttle down to MEPS while he waited in line for them to open at 8. After being there all day until 5, he left with nothing else to do but wait. He had to choose three different rates he could possibly be interested in if his rate (HM/ Corpsman in other words) was too manned. He would hate to leave his rate but there are a few other rates that interest him so we'll see where that leads us. He went through medical check ups, interviews about how his "wife and son feel" about him possibly going Active, and pretty much did a lot of "hurry up and wait." And of course submitted all the paperwork that took us EIGHT months to acquire. I can still hardly believe it took eight months for this part of it.

So now that Big Navy has been sent his package, they'll review it, and hopefully get back to us within two weeks. Possibly longer if need be. They will either say no to everything, yes to everything, or yes just to a few things. But the relieving part is, from here there is nothing else we can do. We've done all that we can to achieve our goal and now that we've poured our hearts into all this, it's about to be over. It's the end. The very end of our next beginning. After we know what their decision is, whether its approved or denied, we can move on.

We are hoping that all this waiting around is just practice for the chance that we do get approved for Active Duty. I am choosing to think that God is testing us to see how badly we want this. And I think we've shown how much we truly want this. Good things come to those who wait patiently I've heard.

Doc Handsome's recruiter has been so amazingly helpful. Recruiters that will even take on a prior service member are few and far between. For one, they don't get credit for them. And two, the process is so long and the percentages of being accepted are so small. Many recruiters don't even bother in the first place. I can't tell you about the numerous recruiters that turned us down when we firt started this journey. Even when our recruiter moved an hour away, he tried to give Doc Handsome's case to another recruiter who said he would not do it. I don't think I could ever express how grateful we are to him. He has spent countless hours in meetings with Doc Handsome, drove hundreds of miles to make trips to us, and gone way above expected on anything he had to do. Ok, and he gave Mini Dh a Navy stuffed bear when he was crying.

So please one last time, keep us in your prayers that the news from Big Navy is good and sends us in the right direction. Doc Handsome wants so badly to stay in the military and serve. I just hope that's what God has planned for us.