Pack It Up, We Are Going Home!

I knew the day would come when Tom would come home and say, "WE HAVE ORDERS!!" And in my mind, he would be screaming it and I would smile and we would be so excited. Just as how Tom imagined me saying "yes" to his proposal, things were a bit different in this scenario too. (For those who may not know the story of our proposal, I said seriously three times before I said yes. Oops :) Click here for the full story.

It was a normal day for me - reading, cleaning, watching TV - housewife stuff. Tom got home relatively early and I was excited as he greeted me with a smirk that reminded me of the Cheshire Cat. I should have known something was up but I fell for it and we slipped into a conversation where he lead me to asking him how work was. As he went over the basics of his day, he nonchalantly said "oh yea and I received orders." SAY WHAT? So I was told to go grab the paper and I was so excited I couldn't flip it over to read it myself so I made him. And this is where I lost it.

I cried. Not happy tears but sad, heartbroken tears and not for myself but for my wonderful husband who wanted nothing more than to move back to California. But nope, the Marine Corps was sending us to Quantico, Virginia (one of two places he would have preferred not to go back to as he spent his first 9 months in the Marine Corps there for training). I felt awful as Tom had to console me as I cried for him when I should have been telling him all the great things about moving to VA. This will be the last time I cry over where the Marine Corps sends us - at least I really really hope so. 

We started thinking about all the good things that would come from this move and within a few hours we started to call our family to give them the news that we would be coming back to good ole 'Merica. 

Once we knew where we were PCSing, I figured that was it. Ha. The next day, Tom called me in the morning to let me know we might have another option but it was even lower on his list of places he wanted to be. But we would have to wait until after dinner to make the call back to the states to get more information. 

During the call, I knew it wasn't turning out in his favor. So when he hung up and told me "change of plans, we are moving to Jacksonville, North Carolina," I wasn't going to cry again but I wasn't sure what to do. For the last 24 hours, I had been researching the area, looking for houses, found a perfect potential job, and thought of all the fun weekend plans we would do living so close to friends in DC and Richmond. All of it crushed with one sentence. Bummer. Such is the military life. 

We re-called family and friends, all who had the same question, "could your orders change again?" Well they could have but it is definitely official now. We will be moving to North Carolina this summer and I must admit I am excited! Tom will come around soon enough - for now he is just ready to be anywhere in the country that he serves.

Beach near Jacksonville, NC