The Family

The Family

Monday, September 3, 2012

Hafa Adai

The Title of this post means more than the typical Chamarro greeting. You see I have spent the last twenty two years stationed in beautiful Hawaii. I gave birth to four children there and managed to raise them to be the ages of 13,16,18, and 21. I own a house in Hawaii, I have an amazing church family in Hawaii. I was blessed with a job I loved and co-workers I can truly call friends. So three months ago my greeting would have been Aloha! But you see Uncle Sam or should I say Uncle Submarine force had a different idea where we would ride out our Chief of the Boat tour. After so long in Hawaii we were not concerned with orders to any where but magical Hawaii. The submarine force in Hawaii is a Camelot of sorts...it is a magical and special place. In January we received orders to Guam. I want to go many places in life, however, Guam has need been one of those:-) The announcement came on the heels of my mothers passing and a very emotional holiday season. At this point we have a 20 year old who works full time for Child and Youth Services in Hawaii and going to school full time, a senior getting ready to graduate, a junior in high school, and one child getting reedy to start high school. They all had big plans, Britt was going to finish school while living with mom and dad, Joshua was going to graduate and go into the military, Becca would finish her senior year with her friends, and Zachary was going to move on to be a freshman and play junior variety foot ball as he has always dreamed of following in his brothers footsteps. Me, I was going to finish going through NAEYC accreditation with my TEAM and move my center back to its home. Rick would fulfill his tour as the COB on one of Pearl's boats. However, this all changed in a matter of a week. We now had to make a decision whether to rent or sell our home...and then get it ready, as we were in the middle of several renovation projects. We had to complete overseas screenings, do a mother ton of paper work, prepare our children and home to move across the ocean,and figure out what to do with 100 different details. All this was done in the midst of mourning my mothers passing and saying good bye to people we had spent the last twenty years with. Rick's best friend from kindergarten has been stationed in Hawaii for almost ten years and leaving Mike and Carolyn almost broke my heart. The irony in leaving them was that right before we received our orders to the mighty USS Chicago, Mike transferred off the Chicago as the Doc...if only we had known! So fast forward to May, when it takes three days and 15 crates to pack my house, we spend every waking moment painting, putting in floors, cleaning, and packing, going to six going away parties, my dad arriving for Joshua's graduation, living in three hotels, selling a car, shipping a car, and flying out. We spent two weeks in Newport going to Command Leadership School, and one week with our family. Then we boarded the plane for the longest trip in the history of the world. We arrive in Guam ay 1140 pm to be greeted by people of whom I can only name two of to this day. We are given a rental van that we will not find out has great similarity to the Dream Machine from Scooby Doo until the sun rises, and drive through the dark dark night to the Navy Lodge where we all pass out. The next day we awake to find that we are in fact driving the Dream Machine and we must go in search of housing and food. To make a long story short, while my house is nice, it is not the house meant for me...and my neighbors are pretty sure of that fact every time I tell them to get their crap off my lawn. Thats all I am going to say about my house...right now! We get everything almost taken care of...and Rick leaves and I start a new job...on the same day...while we are still living in a hotel. The movers arrange to come on Thursday...they show up on Wednesday...while I am at work. The furniture delivery people bring me someone else's bedroom set and it takes them three times to get it right. At this point I realize I am not in Camelot anymore...I'm thinking more like Shrek's swamp! However, through all of this I remain calm...not to say there wasn't any tears. I believe I spent all day Mother's Day crying and painting the doors in the upstairs hall way of the house. I know I cried when I hugged my nieces, nephews, dad, brothers, sisters, brother and sister in laws. As a matter of fact I am pretty sure I cried from Connecticut to Rhode Island the day we flew out. And the day we flew out of Hawaii, I know I left part of my heart with my daughter, who I left crying in Carolyn's arms. I have said all of this to come to this fact....serving in the US Navy, on Submarines was a choice we made many years ago. We accepted the challenges, sacrifices,and the many hardships that come with the submarine service. We have served on 8 submarines, the USS Chicago twice, we have done three changes of homeport (that have never gone according to plan...nobody's fault people...just the way it is),one geo bachelor tour, countless WESTPACS, NORPACS, RIMPACS, local ops, a nine and half month underway, and at one point 8 1/2 years of straight sea duty. At no point did I ever threaten to leave my husband because of sea duty, nor did I ever think it was acceptable to speak to anyone in his chain of command with anything but respect. This is not the life for someone who only enjoys it on the 1st and the 15th of every month. This lifestyle is for those who understand that this is almost a calling...that it is not about you...and that you spend a great deal of time putting your big girl panties on and dealing with it!

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