Finding Comfort in a Place Called Home

A little over a week ago, we had the pleasure of moving into a house that for the first time feels like home. After years of moving around..well, the world, it brings much comfort to finally have a place that we can fully relax and enjoy. Our house is a bit old and needs some modernization, but it's home. There are no words that can describe it. It sits on an acre and a half and is a little over 2500 sqft, all single story and brick. We have two living areas, which we have one as a living room and the other as our family room. It's a three bedroom, two and a half bath and when sitting on the front porch you can see a pond and mountains. We are surrounded by mountains, which at this time of the year is beautiful seeing all the leaves changing colors. Mena, AR is a beautiful and friendly town that we are excited to bring our children up in. Of course, we always welcome visits from family and friends.

Our first Monday in Arkansas was spent waking up very early and all of us driving to Fort Smith, AR to return the moving truck and trailer. While Kevin and I were turning in the truck, Breanna and Nic discovered a massive pile of leaves and their fun began. Watching them as they laughed hysterically and threw leaves at each other, it dawned on me, Nic had never played in them before. His entire life up until this point has been spent living in the desert where leafs did not really exist. In ways it made my heart ache thinking about the things that he has missed out on as well as the girls, yet it also made me realize the amazing life experiences our kids have been blessed with in their short lives.

Kevin is Being Medically Retired

A few days ago, Kevin received the call that we have been waiting on for what seems like months! Wait, what am I talking about, it has been months of waiting. Kevin's PEBLO called him to inform him that his rating from the Army was sitting in her office. Yes, family and friends, it is official... Kevin is in fact being medically retired from the Army. We are now waiting to receive his memorandum, which could take around thirty days. For most soldiers in this situation, it has taken about two weeks to receive the memo, but as his PEBLO stated to us, the majority of them don't have a file the size of Kevin's. So, for now, we will continue playing the waiting game and should be able to move from El Paso in the upcoming weeks.

We are still moving to Mena, AR for many reasons. It is the best thing to do for our family and especially for Kevin with all that he has going on. He needs a small town environment and as we said before, he has fallen in love with this town. We are super excited to get out there and to start this new chapters in our lives together.

For now, we are packing our slowly packing our house and trying our best to prepare for the upcoming move! We already have a house lined up, for the most part, to rent upon us arriving in Mena. One that we can't wait to move into! The house sits on about an acre and a half with an amazing view of the mountains out the front door. It is all one story, which we are super excited for! Seems that stairs are a little too much for the time being. It is a brick house with three bedrooms and two and a half baths. This will be the first house since living in GA that we have had an actual laundry room inside the house. How the little things bring even more excitement! In Germany, our laundry room was in the basement of the apartment buildings, and in many of the houses in El Paso they feel the need to put the washer and dryers in the garage. Not something either of us are a fan over! As soon as things are final, we will post photo's of the house!

Family and friends, please give us time and respect throughout this adjustment period to get situated. There will be moments of ups and downs due to this being a huge change for us. We know that the roads ahead may be a roller coaster, but we will be okay and we will get through it all! Thank you for the continued prayers and thoughts through everything!