Prior to Josh leaving for bootcamp, we had been living in Hawaii, on the island of Maui, for 18 months. We moved to the beautiful island when I was offered a job as a teacher/ director of the church-run preschool where I had previously worked as an aide during my teenage years. We had been living in Chico since getting married in 2012, but felt it was time for a change. And Maui provided the perfect opportunity for the change we had been craving. So, we took the plunge into the unknown (well, sort of...Maui isn't exactly a rough place to move to) and moved to Maui, me at the end of May, 2014 and Josh in June. Josh found work quickly as a zip line tour guide, which proved to be a job he enjoyed and made lasting friendships through. I worked at the preschool for the 2014-2015 school year, and then ended my time there in June of 2015.
While we were living on Maui, loving life and following our 3 year plan of living on island (funny how quickly that changed...), Josh and I had a discussion one day while driving to Paia to get flatbread pizza. We had both been feeling unsettled about our future, where life was leading us, what our purpose was, etc. We realized we were coming to a crossroad and unsure of which way the Lord was leading us. We both enjoyed life on Maui, the laid back lifestyle, our friendships, the weather...but what was the deeper purpose of us being on Maui? We were not very involved in ministries or serving, and both did not feel like we were fully using the gifts God has given us in the jobs we were pursuing. We then began to brainstorm and dream- about the future, about what we would ideally like to be doing, where we saw ourselves living and more. It was quite the conversation, and one that led us to discuss the USMC for the first time in our years of being marriage, dating and engagement. Josh told me then, January of 2015, that he had always been drawn towards the military, the Marines especially. According to him, they were the most hardcore, the most bad-ass, and therefore the best in his mind. I asked him why he had never brought this up, and he said he had dismissed it once we were married. He never thought I would be willing to discuss it as a viable option, let alone go forward in researching and pursuing it. Little did he know that less than 6 months later, he would be flying to Oahu to enlist with the recruiter there.
After that initial conversation, the idea of joining the Marines almost consumed Josh's thought life. If I hadn't been around to draw him out of it sometimes, I think it would have. He spent countless hours researching on the computer, reading up on military blogs, talking with former Marines, reading novels, and much more. I was involved too- since everything he read and discovered he would process through with me. I began to see his passion for defending our country, and ministering to others who were as well. We realized we had options as far as his enlistment. Becoming an officer was the obvious choice for Josh, since he has a 4 year degree, but enlistment was also an option. As Josh discovered more about the different paths he could take, he really began to feel called towards enlistment. This came as a shock to most people, myself included, and was hard to explain fully. Ultimately, it came down to where Josh felt God was leading him. He felt he would have more opportunities to show humility, in starting from the bottom of the USMC and working his way up. He also felt it would give him a great opportunity to be a mentor to all of the 17 and 18 year old recruits who would make up the majority of his peers during bootcamp. As I watched him process through all of this, I started to see the reasons myself, and supported him in his decision to enlist. It was not an easy idea to be fully on board with, and since then I have had to continually remind myself that I am trusting the leadership of my husband. He is the head of our household, and if I am going to follow him, I better trust he is being led by God. And I do, more now than ever before, even though it meant a drastic change in both of our lives.
Once he had decided on enlistment, he was flown out to Oahu to sign up officially with the recruiter for the state of Hawaii. This happened at the end of June of 2015. We both thought he would be shipped off to bootcamp sometime soon after that, even as soon as July. I had a planned trip to Europe with all 3 of my siblings and 2 friends, and I had to face the harsh reality that Josh might be at bootcamp when I returned from my trip at the end of July. Well..apparently things don't happen as quickly as we thought in terms of shipping out, especially in Hawaii (the most laid back place ever!), and Josh found out he would not be starting bootcamp in San Diego until December 7th (my birthday, of all days). This news was both encouraging and confusing to us. We would have more time together than we had thought, which is always a plus, but we would have to figure out what to do on Maui for work and lodging for several more months than we thought. But, it meant several more months on Maui, and months where my parents would be living there as well (after moving over in July), so those were problems we were willing to figure out!
We spent the next 4 months on Maui, moving back to California on Thanksgiving Day. Josh finished out working for the zipline company, and I left behind a waitressing job I had quickly grown to love. I mean, what's not to love about working a 4 or 6 hour shift with great tips, while getting to stare at an amazing ocean view? Oh, it's better because it was the beach I was engaged on! (I'm still hoping I get to work there again sometime soon, could you tell?) It was hard to leave behind the life we had formed there, the amazing friendships we had made, and the beauty of the island itself. But, we knew it would only be putting off the inevitable if I were to remain there while Josh was in bootcamp. We spent time in Roseville before Josh shipped out to San Diego, and I moved back to Chico to live with Josh's sister, Rachel. She had been in need of a roommate, and it worked out perfectly with timing for me to join her for the remainder of her school year. I also had one job lined up before moving back, in the kitchen of a retirement home where I had lived previously. And there began this next stage I am currently in, Marine wife, separated from my husband physically but connected deeply to all he is doing through letters and prayers.
More on what bootcamp was like, for both of us, in my next post. Thanks for reading! Here's a few snapshots from our Maui life. Couldn't resist sharing. It was hard to leave this beautiful place behind- but I know God has more adventures in store for us!
This is a good story! I admire what you guys have accomplished!
ReplyDelete