Justin always felt a calling to the service, but when we met he had taken a short break from college, and after our wedding he decided to go back to school. Well right after finishing his bachelor's degree, he went ahead and got his master's as well. And then he immediately got a teaching job at his alma mater high school. So life was pretty A-OK. We moved in the middle of this from Mt. Vernon to Tacoma, but we realized that as long as we were being obedient to God, we were being really blessed. By this time we've had two boys and a perfect house and perfect renters in our old house and perfect parents who help with the kids, and life was, well, perfect.
After teaching for a little over a year, Justin really started feeling the pull of the Holy Spirit to join the Army. He thought maybe it was a calling to the police or fire force, but it became clear that he was bound for the military. By the time he'd spent hours praying alone, he'd narrowed it down to the Army. We discussed it at length (obviously!), but when it was obvious to me also that this was not his decision, and that our free choice was to obey or defy, I agreed that we'd probably oughtta obey! So he joined the Army and then I lost my job and then he left for the Army in July '10.
In November we were able to go to his graduation (me, the boys, his mom, his grandma, and his sister) almost entirely on donations from the young men in his group. They'd found out we couldn't justify spending the money when we'd be flying him home for Christmas anyway, so in one day they rallied up over $1500 to fly us out. Amazing. Then he did come home for 2 weeks at Christmas, and that was just long enough for it to feel perfect again. But then he went back and waited for over 2 months for them to station him somewhere.
Almost the whole time we could have been packing and cleaning and sorting, but instead we were just certain that he'd be assigned to the base just 20 minutes from our house. Then on March 7th we found out that we'd be going to Italy instead...in two months!! So away we go.
