Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Shore Duty

I am not going to lie. It is one of my excuses for not updating the blog...

We have been on shore duty for the last 3.5 years! If you aren't a Navy family...I know you don't really get it. It's okay.

When David and I got married we were in the "nuclear pipeline" being trained to operate the reactors on the ships. This meant long hours in school and, for me, even longer hours studying. It did NOT come naturally to me. We spent lots of late nights together and any time on the weekend that we could find.

When I got out of the Navy, David was working shift work. He worked a crazy rotating schedule and we had a new baby at home. We still made the most of it because it was really all we knew. When we could be together we just wanted to enjoy our time together.

By the time Isabelle was born a couple years later, we were on sea duty. I suddenly found myself to be a "single mom" of sorts as the ship was often gone or requiring long hours. When the ship was home, we spent every little bit of time together that we could! We were apart more than we were together so our time together was precious. Life revolved around the next time that we would get to spend time as a family.

Since moving to Charleston, we have lived a very different life. David is home almost every night for dinner. He has shared in the responsibilities around the house. We spend weekends as a family. I get to sit next to my husband at church. David has gotten to be a part of art fairs at school, Christmas programs and all sorts of activities. He has been home to experience Isaac's first steps, first words and fed him his first solids. He has taught the kids to ride bikes and scooters, gone camping, built catapults, read books, watched movies and just taken time to BE with us.

So, without realizing some of the things we weren't doing (like writing a blog) we were just taking time to Be. To Be a family. To Be together.

This is shore duty.

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