A New Year

Brandon and I recently had to make some hard decisions about our future and in particular our time in the Air Force. The Air Force is making a lot of changes and along with those changes they are are cutting a large a large amount of troops. We are on the list of those at risk of being cut. So after a long discussion we have decided that it is time for us to retire from the Air Force. 

We will be applying for early retirement in a couple of weeks and should know whether we are approved soon after that. Yes, we have to be approved to retire early and there is a possibility of them denying us. We are hoping that it all works out in our favor because if we are unable to retire things will get quite stressful for us next year. If we are able to retire we are looking at being out of the Air Force in August 2014. As of right now we plan to move back to Utah and Brandon is going to apply for a job at the state prison. The job and move will allow us to live close to family and to raise the girls in a small town. 

The girls are the why we are making this choice. When Brandon told them that he was getting out of the military their eyes got big and Bella asked "Does that mean he won't deploy anymore?" We told her that is exactly what it means and both of girls smiled so big that it made me cry. Then we told them we were heading back to Utah where their friends and family are and they got excited and began to ask when. They did make us promise to never move again after this and it was a promise we were happy to make.

The changes are big but they are such a good thing for our family. It will be a hard adjustment for all of us though it does affect me and my career in photography the most. That is really hard. I spent years planning and waiting to open my business only to be shutting the doors after a few months. It took me some time to wrap my mind around the changes and to make my peace with it. I am not giving up but rather going back to the drawing board. I continue to build my skills and portfolio this year while we are figuring all of this out. If all goes well I should be back up and running by January 2015.

The new year is not starting exactly how we planned or hoped but we know that it will be a good year for our family. To quote CS Lewis "There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”