Hope Floats

According to Google Maps, it's about six hundred miles from Augusta, Georgia to Baltimore, Maryland.  That's a ten hour drive -- longer if you stop to go to the bathroom.

For the last year, this is what my marriage has had to contend with.

Since we both work in a relatively specialized job in the Navy, there are only a handful of places we can go -- and unfortunately, our jobs are just different enough that we ended up stuck where we are now.  So every weekend, my amazingly devoted husband spends half of his free time driving ten hours to my house in Georgia and the other half helping me take care of our infant son.  We get to see each other, total, about a week out of every month.  Needless to say that it puts a tremendous strain on our marriage (and for that matter, our sanity).  Sure, we can request to get stationed together, but that requires a lot of time and jumping through a lot of hoops, and in the end the needs of our family still have to be compatible with the needs of the Navy.

But I don't intend for this to turn into a rant about the problems I have with the military.  In fact, it's just the opposite.

A few days ago I was contacted at work by a sailor in Fort Meade (where my husband works).  She was interested in getting stationed in Fort Gordon (where I work), but there weren't any jobs currently open.  So she did a little investigating and found out that the Navy has the option of a duty swap -- simply put, it's an option for two equally-qualified sailors to trade jobs without all the fuss of creating new orders.  She had spoken with my husband a while back and heard of our situation, so might I be interested in looking into the possibility of trading duty stations with her?

It took a great deal of self-control (read: strenuous physical exertion) to maintain some semblance of military bearing and not start babbling like a giddy fool over the phone.

Yes, I managed calmly after several deep breaths, I would be very, very, VERY interested.

There were, of course, a few caveats: the request has to be submitted to our respective Commanding Officers for approval, and if they do get approved, it's not quite like a regular Permanent Change of Station in which time and expenses are reimbursed -- all traveling and moving expenses have to come out of our own pockets, and we will have to take personal leave to get to our new duty stations.

But all of that seems like only a minor inconvenience compared to the possibility that we could be living together as a family by the end of this year.

Please, please, please pray for us.

--Birdie