Chaplain School Graduation

Eliot waiting for daddy to graduate

Well, it's taken me a week to write this post.  It's a fact that it takes me a week to get back into routine after a trip and coming home from this trip was more chaotic than usual.  

The morning of graduation was crazy.  Ben had to be up at school early, so I had to get all of us dressed up, pack/load up all of our stuff, get breakfast and then walk up to the school from the hotel with 3 kids in heels, all by 8:30am.  All I can say, is THANK THE LORD RICK CAME!  Ben's dad flew in for the ceremony and I would not have made it through the morning without him.

I went to a 'spouse academy' Monday and Tuesday to learn all the in's and out's of Navy life.  They stressed several times that graduation was a very formal event and children should not make a peep.  Yikes!

Colin is in this "I love the sound of my screech" phase.  He is constantly babbling and the ceremony was right at nap time.  Well, he gave Ben a good laugh as he shouted "Dada!" over and over as the 2 star admiral gave his speech.  Then Eliot spotted daddy and shouted "I see my daddy!".  I tried to distract him with 'angry birds'....bad decision.  Every time he hit a bird he would shout, "YES!  I got it!".  Alison is the only one who wins points for staying quiet.  But we made it through and Ben graduated.

He's officially a Chaplain!

Commissioning into active duty

I'm so proud of Ben.  I'm proud of all that he's accomplished and all that is to come.

Eli's saying, "You're so pretty Daddy!"

After some paper work, a few pictures, some cake and lunch with Rick, we got in the car for a long trip home.  We made it home by bedtime and by the next day, we got our big news.

Ben will be stationed in Norfolk, beginning in May.  We're still waiting for exact details of the job, but we know he'll be attached to a ship that takes supplies to deployed ships.  So he won't be deployed in the next 3 years, but he'll be at sea up to 3 months a year.  

The past week has been a whirlwind of emotions.  It may sound weird, but at first I was disappointed.  I had prepared myself to move far away and had already started to say goodbye and let go of responsibilities.  We were ready to jump into an adventure at a short notice.  So when they said "you're staying in Virginia, but 45 minutes away from you are now", it kind of tore us in 2.  It would be hard to stay where we are and have a really long commute, but it would also be hard to move to Norfolk and start all over and everything familiar is just out of reach.  We're searching for a new home and continually trying to figure out what this "new, but still kind of the same" life looks like.  And of course, life still continues on while we contemplate all of our options.  So for now, I'm trying to enjoy the last few weeks of Ben working at Hope and hearing him lead worship.