My husband has been in the military for twelve years. Two days ago, he served his last day.
During a deployment to Afghanistan several years ago, while avoiding enemy fire, he leapt off the side of a mountain and rolled and rolled and really messed up his back. He was medically retired from his military career, with disability. This news for our family was, quite literally, life-altering. For our entire 11-year marriage we have been a military family, enduring everything that comes along with that tumultuous, wild journey. And now it has all come to a swift and early end, and we find ourselves launching into civilian life.
We moved off the base and into a little rental in a near-by city. Our rental home is actually around the corner from our beautiful Latin Mass parish. It seemed so idyllic, honestly, being able to walk to Mass. In fact, when our parish had their Corpus Christi procession, the procession stopped in our front yard where our priest offered Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. In our front yard! I won't forget that experience.
But the longer we lived in the rental, the more we realized it wasn't a good fit for our family. With no yard for the kids to play in, and no other kids in the neighborhood to play with, our children suffered their hardest adjustment yet. They are used to playing outside all day with other children, but that came to an abrupt end, and they have been struggling to adjust. Our dog, also, has no where to be outside. He, too, has had to adjust to smaller confinements. We have no where to really put the dog "away" when we need to, and that's been tough. The house is old and the doors don't latch shut because they are broken. The basement is a construction zone, not safe for the children, yet is the place I have to trudge down to to do the laundry, pressing the children not to follow me and wait upstairs while I get a load going. The dishwasher doesn't work, so I'm washing dishes by hand three times a day. When I go grocery shopping, I have to haul everything up a flight of stairs by myself. There are just all kinds of little annoyances that added up very quickly to us feeling burdened and stressed. It turns out that the house is not a good fit for us.
With that looming over us, we decided to buy a home sooner rather than later. We got in touch with a realtor and he offered to show us some homes on a Saturday afternoon. That morning, before our house hunting, we all went to daily Mass together. I prayed hard about our house situation. We had viewed the homes online and they all looked so lovely, but our rental seemed pretty lovely at first, too, and ended up being not lovely at all. I prayed that God would guide our footsteps and lead us to the place He knows we need to be. Before communion, I was kneeling beneath the tall statue of St. Joseph. I asked him to pray hard, too.
Off we went to look at the homes. I wasn't wow'ed. I mean, the homes were okay. Better than our crappy rental, for sure. But not really something we wanted to commit to buying.
Then the realtor said there was another house nearby we could look at. He said it just went on the market at 9:38 that morning - the same time I was praying in the pew. It was so fresh on the market, no one else had even viewed it yet.
Long story short, we loved this house. It was almost surreal how perfect the layout was for our family. With no stairs, it was ideal for both my disabled daughter and my disabled husband. It has plenty of bedrooms with space for a homeschooling room. It has a gorgeous, fully re-modeled kitchen. Wonderful, fully re-modeled bathrooms. A walk-in closet in the master bedroom that is like something from my dreams. And... a huge fully-fenced backyard for the kids and dog.
We took a leap of faith and made an offer with no idea what to expect. There we were: first time home buyers, making our first offer on a house that we viewed on our first time out looking. We felt like it was all happening so fast, yet it felt right.
Two mornings later, I clumsily trudged down the rickety stairs of our rental with laundry basket in hand. As I started the clothes in the washer I happened to notice a pool of water in the basement. It was our water heater leaking, very badly. I quickly snapped photos with my phone and called the landlord. I stressed to him that the basement was flooding and water was pouring out of the water heater (not dripping). He said he would be by later in the afternoon (little did I know at the time that he wouldn't actually come for 9 hours.) Immediately after I got off the phone with him, my phone alerted me that I had an e-mail. It was our realtor, and our offer was accepted! We got the house! What a joyful relief! It couldn't have come in a better moment.
So here we are. Retiring from the military, transitioning to civilian life, buying our first home. At the same time that all of these exciting things were happening, our daughter was reaching a huge milestone.
When Anja was only 6 months old, she had a tracheotomy tube placed. I was so confident that some day she wouldn't need it anymore. I told myself and everyone else that it was temporary. But the truth is, I wasn't sure about that. I didn't know when/if she would be able to have it removed. I was just hoping. Finally, at 7 years old, after countless sleep studies and trials, the tube was pulled. A small detail that I like to add is that when the doctor was about to pull the trach out, he stopped and asked Anja if she would like to do it herself. And she did. I just love that. She, herself, pulled the trach out for the final time.
Many big and exciting changes are happening for our family! It all feels a little overwhelming sometimes, but it's ultimately good. All the glory to God for these things coming together for us.
During a deployment to Afghanistan several years ago, while avoiding enemy fire, he leapt off the side of a mountain and rolled and rolled and really messed up his back. He was medically retired from his military career, with disability. This news for our family was, quite literally, life-altering. For our entire 11-year marriage we have been a military family, enduring everything that comes along with that tumultuous, wild journey. And now it has all come to a swift and early end, and we find ourselves launching into civilian life.
We moved off the base and into a little rental in a near-by city. Our rental home is actually around the corner from our beautiful Latin Mass parish. It seemed so idyllic, honestly, being able to walk to Mass. In fact, when our parish had their Corpus Christi procession, the procession stopped in our front yard where our priest offered Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. In our front yard! I won't forget that experience.
But the longer we lived in the rental, the more we realized it wasn't a good fit for our family. With no yard for the kids to play in, and no other kids in the neighborhood to play with, our children suffered their hardest adjustment yet. They are used to playing outside all day with other children, but that came to an abrupt end, and they have been struggling to adjust. Our dog, also, has no where to be outside. He, too, has had to adjust to smaller confinements. We have no where to really put the dog "away" when we need to, and that's been tough. The house is old and the doors don't latch shut because they are broken. The basement is a construction zone, not safe for the children, yet is the place I have to trudge down to to do the laundry, pressing the children not to follow me and wait upstairs while I get a load going. The dishwasher doesn't work, so I'm washing dishes by hand three times a day. When I go grocery shopping, I have to haul everything up a flight of stairs by myself. There are just all kinds of little annoyances that added up very quickly to us feeling burdened and stressed. It turns out that the house is not a good fit for us.
With that looming over us, we decided to buy a home sooner rather than later. We got in touch with a realtor and he offered to show us some homes on a Saturday afternoon. That morning, before our house hunting, we all went to daily Mass together. I prayed hard about our house situation. We had viewed the homes online and they all looked so lovely, but our rental seemed pretty lovely at first, too, and ended up being not lovely at all. I prayed that God would guide our footsteps and lead us to the place He knows we need to be. Before communion, I was kneeling beneath the tall statue of St. Joseph. I asked him to pray hard, too.
Off we went to look at the homes. I wasn't wow'ed. I mean, the homes were okay. Better than our crappy rental, for sure. But not really something we wanted to commit to buying.
Then the realtor said there was another house nearby we could look at. He said it just went on the market at 9:38 that morning - the same time I was praying in the pew. It was so fresh on the market, no one else had even viewed it yet.
Long story short, we loved this house. It was almost surreal how perfect the layout was for our family. With no stairs, it was ideal for both my disabled daughter and my disabled husband. It has plenty of bedrooms with space for a homeschooling room. It has a gorgeous, fully re-modeled kitchen. Wonderful, fully re-modeled bathrooms. A walk-in closet in the master bedroom that is like something from my dreams. And... a huge fully-fenced backyard for the kids and dog.
We took a leap of faith and made an offer with no idea what to expect. There we were: first time home buyers, making our first offer on a house that we viewed on our first time out looking. We felt like it was all happening so fast, yet it felt right.
Two mornings later, I clumsily trudged down the rickety stairs of our rental with laundry basket in hand. As I started the clothes in the washer I happened to notice a pool of water in the basement. It was our water heater leaking, very badly. I quickly snapped photos with my phone and called the landlord. I stressed to him that the basement was flooding and water was pouring out of the water heater (not dripping). He said he would be by later in the afternoon (little did I know at the time that he wouldn't actually come for 9 hours.) Immediately after I got off the phone with him, my phone alerted me that I had an e-mail. It was our realtor, and our offer was accepted! We got the house! What a joyful relief! It couldn't have come in a better moment.
So here we are. Retiring from the military, transitioning to civilian life, buying our first home. At the same time that all of these exciting things were happening, our daughter was reaching a huge milestone.
When Anja was only 6 months old, she had a tracheotomy tube placed. I was so confident that some day she wouldn't need it anymore. I told myself and everyone else that it was temporary. But the truth is, I wasn't sure about that. I didn't know when/if she would be able to have it removed. I was just hoping. Finally, at 7 years old, after countless sleep studies and trials, the tube was pulled. A small detail that I like to add is that when the doctor was about to pull the trach out, he stopped and asked Anja if she would like to do it herself. And she did. I just love that. She, herself, pulled the trach out for the final time.
Many big and exciting changes are happening for our family! It all feels a little overwhelming sometimes, but it's ultimately good. All the glory to God for these things coming together for us.
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