Colorado Springs

Finally… we have word of where we are going…   Ft. Carson, COLORADO SPRINGS.

I can’t quite put into words how excited we are.   REALLY excited is all I can say.

In some respects I’d say it’s been a long year.  It was 14 months ago that Chris and I started to get REALLY serious about our future plans.  We pulled out the Family Timeline, made a couple dozen spreadsheets… looked for jobs all over the place -- in the army and out,  weighed army benefits and army retirement pay to lower-than-ever salaries outside the army, marveled at what a rough market it is these days and talked to our Radiologist friends ahead of us who were battling the same questions.  Because of the economy we started looking at ‘staying in the Army’ with more seriousness than we ever had before.  The Army’s been good to us.  Great, actually.  As we talked about this ‘new’ option we wondered if given the chance to live in Colorado Springs, we might actually enjoy staying in.   We did our research about Colorado.  Great schools.  Great neighborhoods.  Great shopping.  In the WEST.  Lots of sunshine.  And about a hundred testimonials of people in the armed forces and out who have loved it there.   Then we prayed and prayed some more all the while talking to our kids about pros and cons and questions and uncertainties.   

Two months later (exactly a year ago) Chris drafted an email to the command saying that we’d consider staying in the army if given the chance to work at Fort Carson.  He emailed back rather quickly saying that we were ‘penciled in’.  And that was that.   We reminded ourselves that one uses a pencil so that it can be easily erased… so while we were genuinely excited, we were a little hesitant as well.  It is the Army, after all.

At the end of the summer we were notified that the commander in charge of Radiology moves was changing.  We resent the previous emails but weren’t sure if they held the same understanding now.   At the same time we heard rumors that Ft. Carson would be impossible to get AND realized that we had missed all deadlines for Radiology fellowships – which for some reason, are 24 months out.   Chris really has had no desire to do a fellowship (another more specialized year of training) so we hadn’t really researched it… but looking at the job market outside the army, the need for specialized training seemed inevitable.  { One reason we weren’t thrilled about this is that it would give us three more consecutive moves.  A move this summer for one more year of Army payback.  Then a move to wherever we would do a fellowship.  Then a move to wherever we’d get a job and ‘settle down’.  That would put Ryan in 4 different high schools – one for each year.  Not exactly easy for any of us. }  We did some looking at fellowships but consigned ourselves to the fact that if we got out of the army we’d look for what jobs were offered without needing fellowships or that we’d apply for fellowships later.  Really we figured we’d put off all decisions until later and continued to worry… a lot.

In November we heard more rumors of not getting Colorado Springs.  Chris spend the next while getting in contact with Col. Yoest from Madigan in Ft. Lewis, Washington who he had worked with previously.  He told Chris that he’d love to have him work there and would put in Chris’ name as his request.    We then put our prayers and action towards Washington hoping to be in the West and close to family unsure if they even had slots open. 

The command sent us an email that seemed to warn all of us that we wouldn't be getting what we wanted.  They choose 9 Radiologists to be in a non-Radiology command spot, and because of that, it's taking away some of our options.  It was hard to come by information so we were left to wait and try to dream up scenarios until we got so frustrated with the ‘not knowing’ that we could hardly stand it.  Every day we thought we’d find out.

After quite a few weeks, Chris' commander over placing Army Radiologists sent out an email saying that Colorado was indeed NOT an option, didn't mention anything about Washington, and then listed 6 priority fills including Columbus, Georgia.  After researching them all, (you know it was in depth if you know Chris) we came to the conclusion that Georgia was the best.  January was a pretty unsettling month.  I usually love January's but this year it was with filled with anxiety, uncertainty and some serious grumpiness.     There are some good things that we love about Georgia but it's just too far away.  There are some not great things about Washington but it's closer.  We felt like we should try for Washington (still unsure if there was a position) and tried to be filled with resolve, determining that we'd press forward with optimism and that things would be ok.   Our attempts at researching the area, finding rentals and exploring school options made me seriously depressed but I figured I was getting a little dramatic and that we just needed to press forward with a decision that felt the 'most' right and we'd feel the real 'yes' answer later. 

Just a couple of day after that, (February 4th) we got an email from Colonel Wirt... "Chris. Good news. I think I will be able to get you into Carson (Colorado Springs). I have increased their projected fills and have you penciled in as of now. More to follow this week if anything changes."  Chris called home and read me the email over the phone and I just sat there in shock.  Both of us were in shock.    When we talked to my parents later that day my Dad told me that he had put our names in the temple on Friday.  Then when we talked to Chris' parents they told us they had put our names in the temple on Friday separately not knowing that each other had done it.    We felt extremely blessed.

For the next several weeks we waited for orders.  Without official orders (and sometimes even with official orders) nothing is certain.  On March 8th we got another email verifying our move to Colorado Springs.  We are feeling very blessed, so grateful and really excited!