I guess you could say it all started back in late 2009. My husband had taken some leave for the holdiays (Christmas). Keep in mind we had Dawson and had just found out I was pregnant with Korbin. I remember I was in the bathroom at my mom and dads house one morning getting ready. My husband comes in and says “guess who I just got off the phone with?” I knew right then it was about our orders. I asked “ where are we going?” he replied “HAWAII” I was ecstatic! I couldn’t believe he said we were going to Hawaii. The honeymoon destination, pretty beaches, and bright blue waters . This overwhelming feeling of excitement started to send chills down my spine and butterflies in my tummy. But it sounded to good to be true. Even though I was overly filled with joy, I didn’t believe him. I said “ok, no really where are we going, Kansas?” HAHA. He informed me that no we really did have orders for Hawaii.(: Of course I couldn’t wait to tell my friends and family about our new orders. The excitement and butterflies started coming back just thinking about it. My husband’s family did pretty good with the news but my family was not as thrilled about it as I was. They kept talking about how far away it was. How they wouldn’t get to see the grandkids grow up and it just made them sad. But there really wasn’t a lot that could be done about it. Or so we thought!
A few months passed and Dwight started his school to change his MOS( army job) in April 2010. Dawson and my pregnant self stayed back at Fort Campbell, while he was in Virginia. Which was about 13 hours. I wanted to have my baby back in Missouri, where family was, so I stayed at Fort Campbell as long as I could before traveling back to Missouri. At about 32 weeks along I had to end up traveling back to the show me state, because I started having a few problems here and there and thought it would be the wisest thing for me to do, just in case something happened or if I felt as I needed to rest.I knew someone in my family could take care of Dawson for a couple of hours. They were great to help and loved spending the extra time with him. June rolled around which means it was time for Korbin to arrive. I scheduled my c-section for a Friday. That way it would be easier on Dwight to make it back for the birth of Korbin. As soon as school let out Wed. Dwight drove all night from Virginia to Missouri. To arrive on Thursday. We were able to spend a little one on one time together, of course Dawson was so happy to see daddy. Before we knew it Friday had come it was the big day.Time was cut too short, Dwight really only got about a day in a half with Korbin and about two days with Dawson.It was already Sunday morning which meant he had to start his journey back to Virginia.
As time goes on, the summer is coming closer to an end. I couldn’t believe that it was almost time for us to pcs (move). At this time our report date was suppose to be in Sept. which was the month Dwight was to return from school. It seemed like so much to do in so little time . We still had to pack and ship our household goods and ship our vehicle, (which he wanted to wait to do until he returned from Virginia )and not to mention clearing post. He needed to come back to Missouri to spend a little time with family before he left. Because in all reality who knew when we would make it back to the continental states. With the time approaching fast that was only going to be two weeks to do everything! So Dwight made a phone call to see if he could get an extension on our report date only to find out that after all there had been a mistake with our orders! We didn’t need to be going to Hawaii after all. Turns out there was an opening for my husband’s rank and mos in Italy and it was thought that Italy would be a better suit considering my husband’s background in the military(jobs, training,qualifications) I couldn’t believe he just said Italy! Here my family was worried about Hawaii and wondering how they would see the kids on a regular basis from across the ocean. Now Italy and not only an ocean away but on the other side of the world. That’s where skype comes in very handy. It doesn’t always work the best, but when it does, it’s great!
Now this is August time frame, yes that’s right August and we were suppose to be reporting to Hawaii in Sept! When Dwight tells me this, that overwhelming feeling of joy, chills running down my spine, and the butterflies in my tummy was back! I couldn’t believe there was a chance that we would be moving to Italy and without asking for it! But at this point it wasn’t set in stone. We still had to wait for approval and to make sure that all information was right. At this time I began to get a little nervous combined with my excitement because of course Hawaii doesn’t require passports and visas. Of course we didn’t have them and we were literally running out of time. I wanted to start the process immediately but that couldn’t be done until our orders had changed for sure. Which by the way took three weeks to get everything all finalized and ready. So now we were really cutting the time short!
You had better believe though, I started the passports as soon as I could. I did not want to be like so many other families recently who were not able to travel with their husband for whatever reason there’s may have been. I had to not only worry about the luggage for me but the luggage for two kids as well, my two boys, their carseats, and the fact that a carry on bag is necessary especially with two little ones. I knew that if it came down to it I could do this on my own, I wouldn’t of said it would have been easy but I could of done it with my head held high and a smile on my face. As it turns out we were lucky, our passports only took about six weeks to get and our visa took a week. They came just in time.(: Along with new orders, we were given an extended pcs date, so instead of arriving at the end of Sept.(like we were suppose to for Hawaii) it was changed to the end of Oct. That one month made a huge impact on our travel. It took a load off my back and gave me the relief and happiness I needed to make this trip more enjoyable .
Our plane was to depart around 1030 a.m. We chose to drive up to St.Louis the day before, rent a hotel , and take our vehicle to the shipping port close to the airport. We were to fly from St.louis to New York, have a five hour layover in New York, then from New York to Italy. However, there was bad weather in New York. We ended up having a four in a half hour layover in St.Louis. By the time we actually made it to JFK we had about 40 minutes before our next plane was to depart for our non stop to Itlay. In other words, basically enough time to go from our arrival gate to our departure gate(which was at opposite ends of the airport), go to the bathroom, change diapers, and grab a quick bite to eat. Since airplane food is not the greatest. After all that was taken care of we made a couple really short phone calls to let family know we made it safely to JFK.
On both flights, the kids did amazing! Korbin slept on the first plane and Dawson was so amazed by what was outside the window. The second flight Korbin and Dawson slept the majority of the flight. Dawson woke up about 30 minutes before we landed and Korbin woke up about 10 minutes before we landed. I was so amazed at how well they did. That made for a very smooth and comfortable trip. Well for the most part, those seats aren’t exactly the most comfortable for eight hours. But hey, we finally made it to Italy!
I was still a little in shock that we were in Europe. Not only were we going to live in this beautiful historical country surrounded by water, architecture, and the swiss alps,but Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Slovenia are all close tourist destinations. We are in the perfect place to travel, take in all the sites and the wonderful opportunities. It’s not everyday that something like this comes along. You have to snatch it up while it last. For most people this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It may have been stressful and a long process to get here, but in the end I think it’s worth it. I know that if you are close to your family, like I am mine, it can be a little hard at times, especially when there are kids involved. Because they feel like they are missing out, but this is our life. This kind of thing is to be expected by someone who is in the military. No matter where we have orders to, I will stand beside my husband, now and for always. If you are here, embrace it! It truly truly is what you make of it. If you think you are going to hate it, chances are you probably are! Don’t hate it until you try it. There is bound to be something here that you like.
Ciao!
