Island Life

So yes. It is true. Our next Base will be on an island off the coast of Spain.

Crazy, huh?

I won't get into too many specifics right now as this assignment is well over a half a year away. Let me just say that JB received an email from the assignments officer early last week offering him the spot at Lajes Field in the Azores. John accepted the spot.

Of course, this is military life, and we will not know for sure until JB receives his orders. This will not happen until at least the spring of 2012. A lot can change, and we are prepared for the fact that change can occur. In the military, you definitely don't count your chickens before they hatch.

However, we are very excited about the very likely possibility that we will be moving to the Azores next summer. We had recently ranked our choices. Azores was #1. Our second option was to stay in Turkey.

Why the Azores? Well, basically for the same reasons we chose Turkey. It is a Clinic setting which JB likes. Hospitals usually have harder hours and a different pace. In addition, it is considered a hardship location -- being "deployed in place." In other words, they do not, barring unusual circumstances, deploy their physicians. Instead we "deploy" together as a family. We know doctors have to deploy and if JB needed to deploy, we would accept that without reservation. We are grateful for many of our friends who have served our country overseas and have been away from their families for months at a time. However, for us, the offer to deploy together as a family is one that we are happy to take advantage of.

Why not just stay in Turkey? Well, basically because JB only owes two more years and we wanted to see a different part of the world. We have thoroughly enjoyd Turkey but thought that if we had the opportunity to get the same benefits at a different place, we would try it. There are only two doctors at this location. And, the other doctor that will be there with JB is his buddy Nick and wife Kristy. Nick was in residency with JB and then was in Turkey with JB. How cool is that?!

We did not expect to find out about this assignment so early. The email came as a complete surprise. And while it is very exciting to know where life will be taking us next, a big part of me is sad to be reminded that our life in Turkey will be drawing to a close and with it, many relationships that have truly blessed my heart.

Much more on this to come. The military life is never a boring one!