Trip #1 to MEPS

Over the next few days, we did our homework: research all over the internet, and talking to anyone and everyone with military (especially Navy) experience.

Now, I know this can't be a universal truth, but we spoke with a LOT of people, and do you know what we found?  Not a single person regretted joining the military.  Sure, there are tough spots and it isn't necessarily entertaining, but the people we spoke with had no regrets.  That was incredibly encouraging to me.

Pretty much by the following week, Chris had made her decision to join.  She was driven by the recruiters to MEPS in Denver to take her ASVAB test.  (I will say one thing - the recruiter guys aren't the best at offering information and Chris is not particularly proactive at asking questions.  She went to the recruiting office not even knowing this was an overnight trip!  The family and I had to put together a quick overnight bag for another recruiter to come along and pick up on his way to Denver that afternoon.  Apparently the plan was for her to take the ASVAB that afternoon, stay overnight, do the medical processing and take the DLAB the next day.)

On our end, it was a long day of wondering what was going on.  I have since learned that the "hurry up and wait" proverb is particularly true of the military, and especially of MEPS.  It was several hours before someone picked up her bag (we rushed because we thought he was on his way at the time), and it was several hours before we heard from Chris.

By the time we did hear from Chris, it was to briefly tell us that she did well on the ASVAB (84th percentile), that she had a female roommate who was joining the Marines, and that she was in a panic because she could not get the cartilage piercing out of her ear.  She had gotten it a year before for and had never removed it, and at this point, it wasn't going anywhere.  She couldn't have any piercings in her body in order to do the medical processing.

A short time later, we began to become anxious as well, as we found out she was wandering the area of downtown Denver (it was night, ya'll) looking for someone to get this thing out of her ear.  She tried to find tattoo / piercing parlors, tried a regular ear piercing place ~ no success.  She even asked a hotel employee in the lobby to try to cut it out of her ear with scissors!  Bad idea!!!

Around 9pm, we got a call that her recruiter was bringing her home.  They simply wouldn't process her the next morning (and the wake-up call was like at 4:30am) with the piercing in her ear.  It didn't matter that she'd already checked into the hotel, that she'd had dinner there (on their dime) ~ she was coming home.

And when she arrived home, we spent about thirty seconds hugging her and being excited for her ASVAB score before her Aunt Deb walked in the room with a couple pairs of pliers.  And about 30 seconds after that, the piercing was out ~ quick and painless.  Maybe we should have simply driven down there and taken care of it ourselves...

Meeting the recruiters

As tax season was ending, there was a little lull in the busyness of work, and I had many hours where I was just paid to sit and think about things.  One of these things was the future.  (Weird to use a past tense verb when speaking about the future.)  Chris, also, was beginning to get a little antsy I think with not knowing how to transition into a real career, particularly in the language field.  She was (is) a great employee, but obviously working as a cashier at Panera wasn't what she wanted to do the rest of her life.

I challenged her to get online and do some research about the kind of job she would like.  We needed to have a goal before we could determine the best path to that goal, right?  What we found out was interesting, if not a little disappointing:  that most foreign language degrees lead to jobs in the teaching field.  Sure, there other opportunities to do translation and such, but those opportunities were limited, especially with a resume that only included schooling.

As we began to look in the direction of the military, what we found was exciting!  If Chris merely completes her Navy contract and does not even have her degree, her resume will be strong enough to transition directly and smoothly into a good job at that point, because of the experience and clearances she will have.  That said, she could also finish her degree (her Navy program should provide much of the groundwork for that, not to mention the financial aspect), and/or continue in the Navy long-term as a career.

We agreed that soon after tax season we would visit a Navy recruiter and a counselor at the community college just to gather information, and go from there.

It was quite the challenge to coordinate three schedules so that Ro and I could go with Chris to visit the recruiter the first day.  We managed ~ got in the car ~ drove up to Fort Collins ~ and there was no one there.  We had better success the following week.

I smile when I remember Christianne telling the recruiter that she wanted to go into languages.   He asked her what she could speak and she said, "Spanish."

"Yeah, we don't need Spanish."  Pause.  "We need Farsi and Mandarin."

"I don't speak those," she said, looking a little deflated.  (Like how many 19-year-old kids living in Fort Collins really do?)

He said, "Yeah, I know.  We'll teach you," and from there she perked right up at just the prospect of getting to learn another new language.

We spent quite awhile there with the recruiter and got a lot of information.  There were a few notes that were important for us to understand to moving forward:

• She would need to take an entry test for the military (ASVAB).
• She would need to take and do well on a language aptitude test (DLAB) to be able to get into the linguistic program.
• They would allow her to do the DLAB before joining the Navy so that if it wasn't a fit, she wouldn't be obligated to them to the next several years of her life.
• She would be in the Delayed Entry Program, and likely not go to boot camp until December or January.

You could see in her eyes how she was hooked.  I think if they had asked her, she would have signed up right there.  Of course Ro and I agreed ~ the benefits for her are wonderful.  BUT, we needed to consider other options and take it slow.  We needed to do our research.  After all, the recruiter's JOB is to get us in the Navy.  Our job is to make sure our daughter is protected and gets what she wants out of this.

We left and asked Chris if she wanted to go see the counselor at Front Range.  She said no.  I think we all knew that the traditional college path wasn't the best for her.  She just isn't that kid.  She will be in school in the Navy for sure ~ with every single class being relevant to the language she chooses.  No math, no science, no art, or PE.  She will get to eat, sleep, and breathe language.  And for her, that is heaven.

Story #1: About the child who made me a mom

So sweet Christianne came into this world as the perfect child.  She still is, for the most part.  Not quite as quiet and sweet as she used to be, not quite as obedient, but all around, she has been nothing short of a treasure for the 19 years she has been in our lives.

It's such a bittersweet time here these days.  I was pondering this morning about how nothing changed my life my more than becoming a mom, how nearly every day of the past 19 years has been spent hand-in-hand or at least side-by-side with my girl... and how that time is becoming shorter and shorter.

Our baby girl leaves home September 1st.

As life-changing as it was that first day in May of 1996 when we brought our daughter home, I suspect this new chapter in life will be life-changing as well.  Obviously it will be for her ~ everything about her life is about to change!  But even for us, adjusting to life without her... it will be strange.

Yet we are beyond excited and feel strongly this is the path the Lord has for her.  That is the story I want to share, because it's not just about another kid joining the military ~ this is the story of *our* kid joining the military. 

Last January I was working in the tax office.  We were open for business, but obviously there isn't much to do those early days of the year, except to get prepared for the season mostly by catching up on tax law changes and such.  We had a woman come in to the office that was a new hire (though not a new tax preparer) and she began to work on her requirements and such.  It turns out that she would end up working at a different office, and that was the only day I would actually ever see her.

As this woman was leaving ~ Karla ~ we were chitchatting about our families and such.  She is a Christian and she shared with me some of her ministry involvement, and talked about her family, and then of course asked me about mine.

I shared with her about Christianne ~ how she is beautiful and smart and has been working for the past year {Chris calls it her gap year} while she tries to figure out what to do with her life.  I told her how Christianne has this strange affinity for languages:  how she maxed out all the opportunities to learn Spanish at her high school and the community college before her senior year of high school; how she had a decent level of fluency in Finnish, entirely self-taught; how she taught herself enough German to test into German 2 her senior year of high school; and how she dabbled in some other languages here and there as well.

Karla had just shared with me that three of her four (I think) adult children were all serving in different branches of the military.  When I told her about Christianne's language skills, she said, "You really should check out the Navy!  They are looking for linguists!"

The Navy?  There's something I hadn't really thought about.  We weren't too excited about college for various reasons, but it seemed like the logical place to start.  The Navy?  Huh.

I came home, somewhat intrigued, and shared the story with Chris and Ro.  Ro was with me ~ we should at least get some more information.  But Chris was like: "Yeah.  NO."

And so the thought sat.  For the next several months.

Here I am, once again

(... standing before You with empty hands, feeling so unprotected from the things that hurt me most...  That's a song.  Betcha can't name it.)

I started this blog in 2006, because I love to write. I made a total of 9 entries, sporadic at best, and set it aside.  As much as I do love to write, things happen, and life gets in the way.

I re-started this blog in 2007 as a means to keep in touch with my friends and family back home as we began a new season of life in Colorado.  At times I wrote daily, sometimes more! - and during other times, not so much.  I obviously fell off (out of?) the blogosphere some time ago.

Even looking at the side bar of the other blogs that I used to love to read - many of them are quiet these days, too.

But I find myself here, in the middle of summer of 2015, with an overwhelming desire to blog again.  Much has happened this summer - during this summer where not much has really happened.  We didn't go any where, no trip to Cali... we haven't even taken a drive up the canyon to Estes in probably close to a year now.  But despite the quietness of this season, there are a lot of changes underway.  And those leave me thinking constantly... and that makes me want to write again.

I have stories to tell.

Perhaps I do not have an audience any more; that is okay.  But it changes nothing. 

Because still, I have stories to tell.