Summer of Change

I've written posts previously of how the seasons bring change. This season brought a whirlwind of it!

In June we left beautiful and exciting, never nothing to do, Stuttgart, Germany for the second time, to move back to our old stomping grounds of Kansas.  The perfect opportunity came up at the perfect time for Shannon to command the communications squadron at McConnell. So for the next 2 years we call Kansas, once again, our home. 

Gavin left 4th grade, after having one of the best teachers he will ever experience, to join a 5th grade Blue Ribbon Stem class with an easy and short bike ride from our home. I watch him ride away each day with one of his close friends, on our perfect suburban street, around the corner and out of sight. (Weeds theme song playing in the background of my head, "And they're all made out of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same.") I sit on the cute front porch reading each afternoon while I wait for him to arrive back around that same corner.  He doesn't notice that I notice, but he looks for me to be there each day. When I see him racing his friend around the corner I think, how is it possible I have a boy old enough to ride to and from school each day without me?  How blessed am I that he can do this?

The first day we moved into our home we met many of our neighbors who came out to say hello.  A few months later, we have a FB page so that we can communicate quickly and have regular gatherings.  I love our military families that we make. I love how we make fast friends and we feel comfortable enough to borrow a cup of sugar, to pick up mail for a neighbor on vacation, to watch the children play hide and seek through all of our yards after dark, while we drink wine together on the porch.  Laughter and cicadas singing in the trees is our music.  These are the things I will miss the most when we leave the Air Force in a few short years to begin our next lifetime.

I love Kansas, in that most of the people are kind and willing to help a hand. I love that in Wichita I can run into my aunt and uncle at the grocery store or stop in for a lunch one Sunday. I love that there are memories I made here as a kid and now my son gets to make some of his own.  I love that my family became my first yoga clients. I love that I can experience the closeness of family but still have my own little military life on the side. I love that for two years we get the best of both worlds. (But the wind and the allergies of Kansas can suck it!)

Shannon is happy in his job and still gets home at 5pm and can be home when needed. He is ready to say goodbye to this chapter of his life and in a few short years he will.  It is a time when he will let go of the need for a strat and bullets for his OPR. It is a time when he will put family first and just enjoy the ride, leading his airmen in a way that teaches them things that maybe they didn't get a chance to learn at home with their own parents. It is in these years he may learn a few things about raising our own child.

It is two years that I will feel comfortable enough with family and friends nearby ready to take the reigns as I gather the courage to start school again myself. My boy now old enough to take care of some things on his own when I am away. 

Starting something new is exciting and scary. It's a commitment and a gamble.  I don't know where this path will lead, but I'm confident it will lead to something good. If nothing else, if I bring no healing of pain and suffering to others, maybe I can heal my own sufferings. Either way, I gather up the courage and I snuff out the doubts and I keep moving forward to see what good things will come my way.  In my mind, the future looks pretty amazing.

Wish me luck. Cheers to life, cheers to change, and cheers to love.