Today is not only New Year’s Day, but it’s also the first day of my retirement from the Army. Today begins a new chapter for my family and me. But as often happens with the New Year and major life changes, I’m a bit contemplative and I’m looking back at the past to see where we’ve come from, how God has grown us, how He has used us, the changes He has made in us, and where He has placed us now, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I’m excited to be at this point in my life and I know that I can trust God to continue leading us as we navigate this next season.

If you read back through my blog, you’ll see that I rejoined the Army about 14 years ago after being out of the Army for about 13 years. Stacy and I felt God calling us to change directions and for me to reenlist. At the time, I had been working in IT for about ten years and had a decent career, but we felt God was directing us to change it all.

In those 14 years my family moved 6 different times (and I moved 7), we had one deployment to Iraq, one year apart in Korea, at least 8 different schools totaling about 63 weeks apart, and more training events away from home than I can count.

Looking at these numbers, I see how blessed we were. I have many friends who had multiple deployments to Iraq and/or Afghanistan. I know folks who were in units that rotated to Korea or Europe for nine months at a time and didn’t get to come home to see family. I know people who moved much more than we did, although at one point we did move four times in just barely over three years. 😊

But in all of this I see growth. While I was deployed to Iraq at least one window motor died on our truck, maybe two, and one of the engine sensors had to be replaced. Stacy knew that if I had been home, I would have fixed those things instead of paying a shop to fix them. So, she looked up YouTube videos and did the repairs herself. She saved our family money, and she learned something new. She grew stronger mentally and emotionally. She taught Emily, who was about six at the time, to look up solutions to problems and then fix them. During another time that I was away, either the washing machine or the drier died. Instead of buying a new one, Stacy and Emily fixed it.

I see that while we’ve been apart, our communication was at times very limited, so when we were reunited, we had to work hard and be deliberate about talking and sharing aspects of our day. We had to reintegrate, so I was part of the normal routine again. We grew in these times, learning that Stacy and I needed to have a few minutes together every day when I got home to reconnect, talk about the day, share highs and lows, and then we could tackle the normal activities of day-to-day life. Sometimes we took a walk and sometimes we hid in our room, or even our closet. (One house had a huge master closet.)

I see the friends God has blessed us with over the years and across duty stations. Some who have died, but many who are just a phone call, text message, or email away. He reconnected me with friends from my first time in the Army. Now we have friends across the globe and around the corner.

With every move came the challenge of finding a new church home. In that challenge, we saw many churches that weren’t filled with the Holy Spirit. But we also found some that were truly focused on God, filled with His Holy Spirit, and striving had to follow Him. God taught us to be discerning about finding a church home.

Through these years, I’ve learned to rely upon Jesus to guide me as I lead my family. He has increased my faith in Him. I’ve seen him move in my life and in my family. He has helped me to become the husband and dad that I am. He has shown me, and continues to show me, how to love my family well. I’m still learning, because it’s a continual process, but He is leading me in this.

I’m thankful for the opportunity I’ve had to serve these past 14 years, and I am thrilled about where Jesus has us now. He has led us to come back to the Fayetteville, NC area, so we could return to our church family here. He has provided a job for me so that I get to work with the Army tackling some interesting problems. In the next month, we’ll start looking for a house to buy. Things are exciting and God is moving.

Blessings,

Robba