Introducing our next assignment

Three mornings in a row. Three morning in a row where I saw 6:30 on the clock before I got up. Three mornings in a row where I saw at least 6:30 when I heard a little boy chattering away. Or a little boy bouncing in his bed. Or a pacifier smacking into the wall. After nearly twenty straight months of mornings that nearly always begin before 6am, or more often than not, 5:30am, this is amazing music to my ears. It's amazing to me how much better 6:30 feels in comparison to 5:30.

JB is a little bummed. He's been leaving the house before 6am. This usually meant he would see the boys for a few minutes. Now he doesn't get to see them but for about 45 minutes each evening. He makes the best of it, diving right onto the floor and playing and wrestling and reading and tickling until bedtime rolls around. But when we put them to sleep each evening, I can tell that he is sad. Sad that he can't spend more time with the two most important little men in his life.

I love this about my husband. I love that he would choose to spend time with our boys over anything else. I asked him this past weekend if he wanted me to get a sitter so we could go out before his hard rotation began. Yes, he said, as long as we went out after the boys were in bed. He didn't want to miss out on any time with them. He is, honestly, the best husband and father in the world. I can't complain about a single thing. God has blessed me immensely.

It is for this reason, the reason of our boys, that way back in September, JB volunteered to be sent to a very far away Base, all so that he could be assured we would get to stay together as a family.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have gotten pretty sturdy confirmation that we are, in fact, heading to Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey. Well, I said we got confirmation, but I didn't say where. Until now. We recognize that we haven't received our official orders and that anything can change. However, they have asked JB to take a class in April in Texas to be the allergy specialist on the Base in Turkey. We don't feel that they would do this unless they were sure he was coming. We therefore believe we have solid enough confirmation for me to finally post this on the blog.

We are, ecstatic about this. Not only will it be an amazing adventure with great food and great history and great language and culture, but this is one of only two bases in the world that does not deploy their physicians. The reason is that, since we are already in the middle east, the Base is considered a hardship location. They therefore, in a sense, do not see the point of deploying John and bringing someone else to replace him when they could just bring that someone else to Iraq or Afghanistan. While it is a sacrifice to go halfway around the world, the positive, that JB will be with us every day, is not something we can exchange. We are going to the Middle East together as a family to avoid JB going somewhere without us.

We are also excited because there are only three physicians on Base. One of them, is a guy who graduated last year. Nick and his wife Kristy and their son Noah. They will have at least one more year in Turkey. Then, in addition to Nick and John, it appears that JB's classmate Erik (and his wonderful wife Andrea and children Jonathon and Chloe) will be getting this assignment as well.

The assignment is for a minimum of two years. At that point, JB will owe only two more years. We can opt. to stay in Turkey or we can go somewhere else. We are not even close to making that decision yet.

I hesitated putting this on my blog because, well, this is the military. We know that they can do whatever they desire to do, and until the official paperwork is in hand, we won't know for sure.

I will be answering many more questions about this in the future. But for now, I just wanted to let you all know that it appears we know where we are going in just a few months!

And just so I can make the joke before anyone else does: gobble, gobble everyone!