Spring of 1990
So here I am dating this awesome guy, Lance. My parents are gone to the states to Walter Reed for treatment for my mom that she cannot get in Germany. They call to say "we are being reassigned. Compassionate Reassignment." I am devastated. So 6 weeks before the end of my junior year I move to a place where my graduating class is close to 1000 people. That is over twice the size of Fulda High- which included 7th to 12th grades! Talk about shock. I get there and spend most days crying. I miss my friends, my Lance, my home. I stick out like a sore thumb. No one dresses like we did in Fulda. No one talks like we did. I do not know any of the most up to date music. I do not know any up to date tv shows or movies either. I am LOST!
I break up with Lance due to pressure around me. I miss him like crazy and he does not even fight for me. Not even a tiny request to not do this to us. This just tears me apart even more. I start to date this real jerk... Jason. He tries to make me into someone/thing that I am not. His little trophy.
I also get my first pap smear done. It comes back bad. Real Bad. I am told they don't know if I have cancer or not. I have to go to Walter Reed and get more tests. Lots more. I spend at least 2 days a month up there. The tests keep coming back inconclusive.
I make a few friends in Newport News at Denbigh High where I am now. I get a job. I try to build a new life. But I am miserable. My parents have'nt tried to get us involved in church. I miss my youth group and my faith is slipping. I am still LOST.
Eventually I graduate and choose to take a semester off of school. I go to college in January and also meet this new guy. Jason and I had broken up in June (? maybe july?) And I am shopping for some milk for my mom so she can take some pain meds and it is late. He comes up to me and asks if I know where the wine coolers are (how lame is that line? It is a grocery store!) I tell him no, i am not old enough to drink. He ends up in line behind me in the store and asks me to join him at a party a few streets away. Since this is my neighborhood I figure, ok. He has been casually talking and we have things in common. Besides, he is hot and I am bored.
For what happens with Lance and I during all of this see my other blogs on how we met and got married. I am skipping on.
Lance and I get married and he is in college. He got out of the Army to go to school and now realizes it is not for him. Not to mention that I thought I was pregnant and we had no health care or money to even get our own place. An Army recruiter comes into my work (coffee shop) and we chat. I tell him how I miss seeing that uniform. He and Lance meet one day and Lance decides it is time to go back in. At least he can take care of a family that way. The requirement is that we get to go back to Germany. They get it done. In January he left... in April I followed.
We live in a cute little apartment and meet our neighbors above us are Tracy and Don. Below us are John and Linda. Below them are Jeremy and Tamara. All of us are newlyweds and childless.. so far. Then we start getting pregnant. And the Army moves us all into Vogelweh housing in Kaiserslautern. We still spend time together. Lots. They become our family. We all had babies together. Some of us had another one quickly. Others lost another one. It was tough. We all experienced that second year of marriage together.
We all ended up moving at our 4 years. Tamara and Jeramy and us move to Colorado Springs, Fort Carson. There our friendship fell apart shortly before our move 4 years later. Linda and John divorced and so did Don and Tracy. Now only 2 of the 4 are still married. While I no longer keep in touch with Tamara, Linda does. All of us have lost touch with Tracy.
Friends of ours in Germany that we went to church with, George and Pam have also moved to Colorado. We enjoy time with them. We have the twins (we said, let's have one more and ha! God LAUGHED and gave us two!) They become Nicholas's godparents. Eventually Lance gets out again... this time to go reserves. He thinks, this time he will work for the Post Office. We move home to MI and things get bad. There are no jobs to be found. He finally gets put on as temp at he PO but then they tell him his job is going away. My parents offer to move us to FL to stay with them while he finds a job. So we move again. And again, and again and again. Yes. 4 homes in FL! He is back in school though and almost done with his AA.
He gets sent to school in South Carolina to reclass and while there 9-11 happens. Shortly after, he is activated for the war. We move to Savannah because the unit is asking for volunteers for a 2nd year and he accepts. They end up not doing this later, but I refused to be apart from him for that long so we followed him from FL to Savannah (Hunter Army Air Field). After his year is up he decides he actually misses the Army. He tries the active component of the Reserves. (AGR or Active Guard Reserve) and makes it. His first offer is New Jersey. We take it. After 8 months there he is promoted and we are told we can move. He takes that offer much to my dismay. But he can now be back in his specialty (JAG) so off we go to Wisconsin.
We have been here for 2 years now and are expecting orders soon (long story as to why). This will be our last official move as far as we know. He can retire in a little over 4 years. We love Wisconsin. It is a good place to raise a family. We are hoping for either L.A. (to be near my dad) or Columbia SC (to be near the seminary we will attend when he retires). No matter where we go though, I know God has a purpose in it. In each move I have had heartache. In each move I have seen God moving in our lives. I have seen the greater purpose. We have grown and experienced amazing things. It has been difficult but a total gift.
