Dusting Off My Hula Skirt

It's official! We're moving to Hawaii for 3 years!!!

Over the past couple of months, orders have come and Chad has put in requests, to no avail. I haven't blogged about this, since it's like a roller-coaster ride, and until the other day, each request has been denied. Let me fill you in.......


As you know, Chad is up for re-inlistment and rotation to sea duty (4 1/2 yrs) this November. After much praying and seeking jobs on the outside, God opened a "dream job" up for Chad. In May a job for PACOM CCP (Pacific Fleet Command) in Pearl Harbor came up. This is a sea duty job, but unlike most, this billet is not on a ship! We couldn't believe it, and immediately requested those orders. Come June, Chad found out he didn't receive those orders, and since they did not come back up, we assumed they were given to someone else.

We kept checking for new billets, and in July, the same PACOM orders surfaced--but now they were considered a "hot job"--meaning it needed to be filled within the next 5 months. Chad immediately requested it, and we found out in August he didn't receive them. We couldn't figure out why, since he had submitted the request for Top Secret Clearance back in May.

One of the Command Master Chiefs, a Senior Chief, and Chad called the detailer and asked what the holdup was. It was the clearance level. During this conversation, they found out if the Pentagon has opened his file, he can get temporary TSC. Praise the Lord, they had opened his file on Aug. 5, so once again, he requested those orders.

Since Chad's rotation is in 3 months, the detailer wanted him to request more billets. So, he requested a ship in Jacksonville, FL, and 2 positions available on a ship in Hawaii. We were patiently waiting an answer on September 10th.

Much to my surprise, Chad called me on Wed. morning and said "ALOHA!!!" I was totally blindsided and my first question was "what job?". I thought for sure he would go back to a ship.

God is so good, and is much bigger than any one of us humans! He blessed us with a job that Chad will come home at night, and work on the base during the day. He will deploy quarterly for 2 weeks/time to do war games and training exercises. This is so much better than being on a ship. On his last ship, Chad was gone 60% of the time, and their deployments were 6 months!

We have a 3 year committment with that job, and hopefully will be able to extend for the full 4 or 4 1/2 years. Chad is finished working in Everett in November, but will have to go for 4 weeks of training, followed by 30 days of leave, so if my estimation is correct, we'll be in the Aloha state in January!

The Navy will fly us back to the mainland once per year, but I hope to get back with the kids more than that.




We are hoping to live in base housing (although it's off base), in a community that tore down all the old housing, and built new 3 and 4 bedroom homes just under 2000sq feet! That's twice the size of our place now!

We're praying for a 4 bedroom home to host all of our family and friends! You'll be happy to hear that the housing rules forbid us from charging you guys to stay at our house, but let me tell you meals are going to cost you! Pop tarts? No problem--$150/each! How hungry are you? Oh, and our date night is Wednesday, and we know you'll be more than happy to babysit our kiddos! hahaha just kidding. One of our friends joked to us about food and babysitting, and I thought it was hilarious.

Can you tell we're excited?????



In the midst of all our excitement, I have a running list in my head that I need to put onto paper. We need to sell our condo, one of our cars, couch and chair, get rid of our junk to make sure we're within our weight allowance for the move, and Chad has to re-inlist and we need to have his re-inlistment party! So much to do and only 4 months to do so!

This next chapter in our lives is bittersweet. As excited as we are for the SUNSHINE and a new adventure, I have made some amazing friends here, love our church, and have established a life for us here. And, we will be even farther from family. Thank goodness for the internet, phones, and blogging!