It has been a crazy couple of months. I will list the main points.
Grandma Lena passed away in January--I know she is at peace now but it was really hard to say goodbye. We all came home for the funeral in Montana.
Our Soldier, the SSG in the SF, disappeared on a mission in February--for the ENTIRE month. I developed an ulcer and was having trouble sleeping. (I didn't really develop an ulcer but it sure felt like it!) But he emailed me in March to say that he was ok!!!
I adopted a second Soldier the end of February. SPC, also in the Army, also in Iraq. He has become a good friend by this point.
I decided that I did not want to pursue Criminology and in my quest for a grad school stumbled upon one that I absolutely fell in love with. Forensic Psychology! However, I do not have any psych in my background so after much debating I decided to go back to school to get a second BA in Psychology and from there to go into Forensic Psych with a Graduate degree. Soooooo by this point the only school that would take me was U of M. I will be heading there in the Fall and I am super-excited about this opportunity! Also, as a consequence of my Soldiers, I want to explore post-traumatic stress and perhaps get into counseling for that.
In April our first Soldier, SSG in the SF, came home!!!!! It was sad to not be supporting him anymore but we all wanted to stay in touch still. The boys and I miss hearing from him but we know that at least he is safe now. Alas, he disappeared yet again for training purposes. :(
I adopted a NEW second Soldier--our 3rd if you are going cumulative. SMSgt, in the Air Force, also in Iraq. We have yet to hear a word from him--but we are still writing letters and sending care packages! I hope that they are brightening his day somewhat.
Through a series of miscommunications and errors we were led to believe that we no longer had our first Soldier so we adopted a new second Soldier--our 4th cumulative. Well, that turned out to be wrong information so now we have THREE Soldiers! SSG(P), also in Iraq. We have been communicating for a little over 2 weeks now and he is a very nice person.
All in all our experience with adopting Soldiers has been a positive one! The boys and I love to send them things and to hear how their days are going over there. And although all 3 that we have left are in Iraq, they are all at different bases so we get to hear about life from different perspectives and different areas of the country.
I will be done with Precision Prosthetics & Orthotics in May and off to Bryn Mawr for my 6th summer in June. And upon my return I will be moving back to Montana and living in Missoula once more. I am excited.
