Moving

Being a military spouse has been an adventure with moves all over the United States and now the world. A blessing in many ways, we have made wonderful friends and had amazing life experiences.

We started this process of zipping around by eloping while my husband was moving en route from Fort Huachuca, Arizona to Fort Riley, Kansas. I flew out to Huachuca from Maine and we drove to Vegas. We drove from Vegas to Fort Riley and I will never forget descending in to Western Kansas and sitting in the car thinking, "What have I gotten myself in to?". Darling Husband tried to ignore the crocodile tears rolling down my cheeks.

From Fort Riley we went back to Fort Huachuca, had baby number 1, and then on to Fort Campbell - home of the 101st. We were there for five years, which could lead to an epic novel if I were to go in to detail, but the short version is that the 101st is our "ARMY" home. Baby Number 2 was born at Fort Campbell and I have kitchy Screaming Eagle baby stuff to prove it!

After the five years at Fort Campbell we moved to Fort Ord, California. From Fort Ord we went to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. An adventure of a lifetime!

We returned to the US to Fort Belvoir, Virginia. My children and I moved to Maine for one year during a deployment and when the deployment was over we all came back to Fort Belvoir.

In the midst of those moves and assignments my husband has been on countless NTC and JRTC rotations, a deployment to Saudi Arabia, one to Kosovo and two to Iraq and has even spent time on a Navy boat. Let's not forget that while I LIVED in Ethiopia, he traveled to 20 different African countries as part of his job description. I am sure that I am missing some of the "adventures" but you get the gist.

So, now we are on to Djibouti, which represents another adventure and two years during which, in theory, my husband will not deploy. I have to say that I would even move to Fort Polk if it meant two years in a row together... in fact in many ways Djibouti is a lot more desirable than some of the stateside assignment choices.

Fort Polk has long been on my "Will not go" list, because even our friends who are from Louisiana didn't like it... along with Fort Drum, simply because of the rumor that they issue you a snow blower when you get there....

Djibouti, Djibouti, Djibouti...