It's still so fresh in my mind.  The nights alone, the caring for babies by myself, being the sole responsible person for the homefront.  I'm still "standing down," which has proved so much harder than I had thought.  But, life was starting to assume that natural and relaxed feeling.  The joy I hadn't felt in a long time.  Life was starting to settle down.

"Do you want to know where we are going next?"

I was sitting at the stoplight, preparing to turn onto the highway for our trip to the grocery store when he called.  He had come home early.  I nixed the shopping trip and headed home.  I needed to hear it from him--not the telephone.

Huntsville.  Three to four years.

My stomach burned, my mind reeled.  We have to leave both of our families.  Elizabeth's grandparents and aunts and uncles.  We leave our parents, brothers, sisters.  I am leaving some of the closest and dearest friends I've had.  People who saw me and helped me through a deployment.  We have to leave the most incredible parish community I've known.  People who care about us.  And our house, our dear little house.  The one we spent evenings getting to know each other in when we were dating.  We planned a wedding here.  Brought two babies home here.  We've held each other in grief here, and celebrated joys, too.

We are leaving a life behind.  And it makes me sad.

But, we will make a new life there.  We will make new friends, build new memories.  Our new home will see more joy, receive new babies, gain it's own beauty.

Questions fly through my head.

Will there be a deployment?  When?  We don't know.  How will Elizabeth handle this? I don't know.  Where do I start with this move?  I don't know.

There was a time, I would lament in tears at the chaos that is our life.  I have vivid memories of crying, "Will things ever settle down?  Will they ever be normal?"

Ha.  Nope.  And you signed up for this, sister.  

In the last year and a half, I have learned so much.  Life is not normal, period.  But, it's especially chaotic in the military.  But, it is this chaos, this upheaval, that gives me a sense of purpose now.  I view it not as a defeat, but as a battle to be won.  There's one constancy in this life, and it's the perpetual change that strikes when life feels most "normal."

And so, dear reader, another adventure commences on the Stravitsch Homefront.  A new chapter.  A new life.  Stay with us, pray with us, as we begin our next journey. 

Charlie Mike, ya'll.