In early February Derek walked in the door from work. In his hands were three BEAUTIFUL orange Gerber daisies. "What are these for?" I asked as he handed them to me. (I hadn't called him crying from a bad day. Birthdays and Anniversaries were still months away. ) He held up his phone and began to read me an email he had received from Colonel Allen. She noted that Derek had put GERMANY and ENGLAND down as his 2nd and 3rd choice for location preference. These two places did not have openings, but as they were "OVERSEAS" bases, she wondered if we might consider ALASKA as a possible location for moving. It was that or Wright Patterson in Dayton Ohio. The fact that she was actually giving us an option was a big deal we found out later. In the military, they just don't do that. You move where they want you to go. Sure, you can SUGGEST....(which is what we did.) But we didn't suggest Alaska!
According to the Air Force, Alaska is considered "overseas" even though it is part of the United States. And rightly so, since you have to go through Canada to get there or take a boat through international waters.
So, Derek was on cloud nine. His bags were practically packed. He just needed a wife to go along for the ride and he was a little nervous she'd say OHIO instead. HENCE the FLOWERS! He didn't even need to spend the money on the flowers. As soon as he read the words "ALASKA" in the email, I was screaming and throwing my hands in the air. We were going! Though, I'll be honest, I did pray about this later that evening just to be sure.
The answer was ALASKA.
I had NO IDEA how involved the process would be to move my 4 children 4,000 miles. (I'll document much of this journey so you too can enjoy the ride.) And when we told our friends and family we where we were going, I was shocked by the replies. From my observations, MOST of the family took it fairly well. Amongst our friends and associates, 100% of the men we told were thoroughly jealous. 1 out of every 10 women actually expressed excitement at the prospect. The other 9 were fairly horrified at the idea. After all, Alaska is known for long, cold, dark winters and lots of ferocious wildlife. This was a little disheartening. That is, until we set sight on Alaska. But in the in between time, we knew this is where God wanted us, so we went in faith.
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