When my family was about to PCS back stateside in 1999 from Turkey my parents had put just about every base in the New England/ Upper East coast region that they could. My Poppops' health had taken a turn and my mother wanted to be close to their home state of New York. I'll never forget my parents pulling out the big atlas map laying it across our dining room table and announcing to my sister and I that we would be moving to Moody AFB in Valdosta GA. You would have thought that my parents had just told us we were moving to Mars. The two of us preteens sure put up quite the hissy fit. When we got to GA that July I thought my life was really over. There was NOTHING around the base and I was sure we would end up living in some backwoods farm with the closest neighbor being 30 miles away. I think my sister and I cried for the whole first week we were there. As the years passed the peach state grew on my sister and I. We even began to call it home. Then the summer of 2002 hit. On the afternoon of May 28th my parents sat my sister and I down at the kitchen table and gave us some of the worse news I have ever heard. My father had been diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease and would be starting chemo treatments in the coming week. They did their best to explain what they could without scaring the hell out of us but when your 14 years and your parents tell you that your dad has cancer you get scared PERIOD. Then four days later on June 02 my Poppops passed away, and although not completely unexpected it was still devastating especially after an already rough week. My mother flew to New York for the funeral with my two brothers and since my father couldn't travel my sister and I stayed back to help him. Although this was the worse summer of my life it also became the summer I grew to love Georgia. When we were moving from Turkey we wanted nothing more then to be as close to New England as we could get. When we got Georgia we could not have been more disappointed. We were going to be 18-20 hours away from the family and in the icky south. My mother wanted to be close to her family if something happened and it did. My grandfather who was sick passed away, but in reality there was nothing my mother could have done if she was closer. It was his time and as sad of a loss as it was for us we know that he is in a better place watching NASCAR. However; GA turned out to be the biggest blessing to our family. They have an amazing Cancer center right there in Valdosta. Had we been stationed at another base my parents would probably had to have traveled quite a distance for my father to receive the treatment he needed. Probably a lot of travel and overnights with 4 kids ranging from 16-4 years of age it just would have been a huge mess. We also had met an amazing group of friends there in Valdosta and we could not have asked for a better support system during that time. In fact shortly after my grandfather's passing majority of our family who stilled lived in New York moved south with us some even in the same neighborhood. So what's my point?
My point is that sometimes the Air Force throws you a curve ball and you don't like it, but you never know what good can come out of it. Yesterday we were told that although we thought Tampa was a high possibility for us it turns out that it may not be as high of a chance as we thought. I mean like slim chance. I guess since Steve and I had talked a lot about not getting our hopes up because it was the Air Force and well nothing is official until it is that we didn't really take it as hard as one might think. At first I was disappointed, but now after a long day of thinking I am content. I have been an Air Force brat my whole life and there has not been one assignment that I can think of that I can say I did not like. We made the best out of whatever they Air Force threw at us and I know that Steve and I will do the same for our kids whatever assignment we get next even if it does end up being Tampa in the end. I mean hell if it wasn't for the uncertainty of the Air Force Steve would be flying C-17s in McGuire right now. Had the Air Force not changed it's mind on that assignment we would have never been here at Peterson as part of the 311th and met all the amazing people we have had the honor of meeting. This assignment has been a huge blessing for us and I am sure the next one will be just as amazing. We will just roll with the punches.
