It has  been 4 months since my last post.  So much has been happening in my life and that of my family.  The biggest change for all of us is my husband’s retirement from the Air Force.  We have been preparing for this since he made the decision that it was time to retire. He served 24 years and was more often than not away from his family doing his job.  Now that he is retiring some people don’t get it. They look at him and our young boys and say how can you be retiring.  A military retirement is different than someone retiring from a civilian company or business.  A military retirement is the first half of a veteran’s life. Then they have to now go out into the civilian world.  It can be tough.  As part of my husband’s decision, we had to make decisions as a family. We felt that with the economy the way it is that maybe I should get a job.  Also I wanted to stay in New Mexico so Bill said if you want to stay get a job. Whether he was joking or not, I got a job.  Now we are here planting roots in the Land of Enchantment.  Some don’t understand that Bill is staying home with the boys.  I think it will be a time that the boys will always remember.  I will admit that it is hard sometimes for me to go to work because I want to stay home with the boys.  So as we change our roles up a bit, I believe in the long run it will be a good for all of us.  Maybe we will learn things like  patience, humility and cooperation that sometimes can be lacking.

I often wonder if maybe the ones that have been somewhat less than understanding are actually jealous.  Maybe they want to retire at 41 years of age.   But how many of them left at a moment’s notice and couldn’t tell their family where they were going, flew into war zones to deliver much needed supplies with the threat of being shot down and spending days on end away from their families.  I would venture to say not many.  I don’t know what this next chapter of our life will be, but if it has been anything like the last 18 years we will be just fine.