A not so glamorous surprise: how we ended up in Korea

As most of you know, before coming to Korea, Austin and I were lucky enough to have been stationed at Fort Leavenworth and to live in our home town for three whole years! Not many military family's get that kind of opportunity. Yes, the commute for Austin to work was quit long, but we both agree it was worth it to be "home." Because Austin sacrificed 3 hours of each day driving, two of our three children were born while living in Missouri, and our oldest was able to start school in our hometown, with the kids we hope he will one day graduate high school with! How awesome is that, for an Army Brat!

Our sweet baby girl

Our BIG baby boy

Carter's first day of school

Having been in the Army for 15 years, Austin knows, once you've been somewhere for three years, it's likely you'll be coming down on orders to move soon. And having been in the Army for 15 years, we also know that only leaves 5 years to retirement! (yeah baby!) Which means, not to many more opportunities to get stationed in those cool places we wanted to go. So a few months short of our 3 year mark, Austin put a call in to his branch manager to check on open requisitions (job openings) in Hawaii! He knew that's the one place I REALLY wanted to go before we get out! He's a good husband like that! I was a little nervous when he called from work one day and said to check my email....he never emails me. I was beyond thrilled when I read a forwarded conversation between him and his branch manager stating that we were on orders to Hawaii with a report date of January 10th! 

It was going to be great! At the time January was about 10 months away. That was 8 1/2 months more notice that we were moving than I'd ever had before. I'd have time to plan the move, research our new home and be extra prepared for once. And I wasn't going to be pregnant or have a newborn! (another glamorous detail of our army life...move from Riley to Benning, we had a 10 week old baby, move from Benning to Leavenworth....I was 8 months pregnant. Not conditions I would recommend moving under.) Carter would be able to start school and stay until Christmas break, an ideal time to move if you have to move during the school year, and Tracker would get to celebrate his 1st birthday at home with all of our family! And January would be a perfect month to be leaving the mid-west for Hawaii! To top it all off, our neighbors from Fort Benning had just moved to the same post in Hawaii we were going! Our neighbors that we love and missed! I couldn't have been happier! 

We had made it to the end of July. We were about 5 months out from moving and needed to start preparing certain things for the move. The required doctor visits and such, to make sure the Army has the resources available at your new duty station that you may require. Nothing to concerning, but I wanted to get  everything done as leisurely as possible. The same day I called Austin at work to discuss what day that week would work best for all of us to come up and have lunch before or after our appointments, Austin had received the DEVASTATING news! For some reason, he was now on orders to Korea, not only that, but the report date was October! 

Now if you read my "About" page, you know Korea was Austin's first duty station. Straight out of basic training 18 year old kid. Back then...families weren't allowed to come to Korea with their Soldiers. And the only thing I knew about Korea, was what Austin had told me from that time. I and my children were NOT going to Korea! All I could think was, "How could this happen?" "How are we going to get out of this?" "How are the kids and I going to handle a year away from Dad?" And what if he get's deployed when he get's back from Korea? Two years with out seeing Dad? Two of our children wouldn't even know who "Dad" was! (I know this is a sad truth for some military families, and that my family has been extremely fortunate as far as deployments go! And I am EXTREMELY grateful for that.....but those are not facts that were on my mind in that moment!)

After a couple of very long, tense weeks, we found out that due to a lovely clerical error by the new branch manager, who had replaced the wonderful branch manager who had put us on orders to Hawaii, our orders to Hawaii had been deleted by mistake. When the mistake was pointed out, it was determined that it could not be fixed, due to the fact that the number of soldiers they had predicted to be leaving Hawaii 4 months prior was much higher than the number that actually left. Leaving Hawaii over strength, and absolutely no requisitions open for Austin to fill. This left us with the next priority fill assignment that just happened to be Korea! GREAT! Now what...