Nine years, nine moves

This September marks our ninth wedding anniversary. I think it is also quite fitting that after nine years, we have just purchased our first home and are planting our roots, making this our ninth move in nine years.

We started out in Texas, where we met and married while stationed at Ft. Hood, had our first child, Curtis, then moved overseas to Germany. What a crazy journey that was! Germany was so full of history and culture that I had never experienced anywhere in the US and, although I love the states, I was helplessly in love with the beauty of Europe. It also added to my overwhelming sadness of being alone in a foreign country; the two years that we spent there my husband was deployed to Iraq. It was so difficult to allow myself the opportunity to enjoy where I was and absorb every ounce of the experience when I knew that he was going through such enormous difficulties. And so, I spent the majority of my time locked inside my little apartment, sheltering my infant son from the world of uncertainty and chaos that had been born at the same time that he had. It was only during the brief few months between tours that we began to really explore Europe.

When my father and mother in law came to visit, we made sure it would be worth while. We took a magnificent road trip from Germany through Switzerland and into Italy where we stayed in a hilltop villa for a few days overlooking the city of Florence. We explored Pisa and overindulged on sweets. We bartered for goods at the open air markets, got lost in the great cathedrals and mausoleums. On our return trip, we went through Austria and crossed the border into Germany where we stayed at a beautiful mountain resort. We skied the Zugspitse, walked the great halls of the Neuschwanstein Castle, and ended up back in our little German town in time for the Kristmas Markt. Sharing that experience with Curt, Val, Taylor, my husband's soldier, our son and the two of us, was something that we will never forget. Even to this day, seven years later, we still look back on that time as one of the best trips of our lives.

Since then, we have moved, hmmm, our more times, I think? We have also added another child, Lili, and three dogs, one of which has since passed. Time has a way of getting past you without you even realizing it sometimes. Here we are now, our son is eight and our daughter is three. Our time we spent in the military is fading into the past, where it was, at one time, all we ate, slept and breathed. Now we have a normal life in the suburbs with two kids and two dogs, buying our first house. The normalcy is surprising, and in some ways, a bit frightening. We never thought of ourselves as being so traditional, but I find this new phase quite relaxing, actually. It is different, yes, but in a good way.

In all the years spent as a military wife, never knowing what was going to happen next or where they were going to move you, it is really nice to be able to make a decision on our own. My husband was, initially, more reluctant. He has a wandering soul, perhaps that is why the military life was so appealing to him. He just went where he was told, knowing that he would never have to stay there for long before he would be going again. I understand the appeal, and was also attracted to that aspect when I enlisted. I was going to travel the world! There are so many things that I have learned in the past nine years that have led us to where we are now. So many important life lessons that can never be taught in a book or passed through word of mouth, but rather lived in the harshest, most raw moment. I know that we were not ready to settle down five years ago, or even two years ago. We needed time to grow and to learn, to discover the possibilities within ourselves and to dream a little more so that when the perfect time came, we would be ready to embrace the new chapter; the ninth move on the ninth year.