Tomorrow... And the Next Day... And next....

I'm gonna be honest here: I am barely hanging on. Between our new assignment, outprocessing, Dan promoting to Major tomorrow and us throwing his promotion party, living in a one room hotel with 2 little ones, the heat, the fierce pressure to get EVERYTHING packed into our one car for our 3 weeks of travel, to making sure we are all lined up for our travel to Japan - on top of daily duties that come with a 4 year old and a 1 year old.... I am falling apart.

I wake up every night with a foot in my face or my lower back; with a baby - who normally sleeps 13 hours uninterrupted - waking up screaming because she's had it with a pack n play in the closet and a blanket draped over it. Somewhere under the covers in our zero below room, I find my sweet husband's size 14 flat foot and for a brief moment, we touch and life is okay.

In 3 weeks, life in America as we know it, will be much different. Danny is going over to Misawa to take command of the Intelligence flight of a fighter wing. From what we have gathered - and from the AMAZING emails of welcome and help we've received - it is going to be an incredible assignment for us. But, Dan and Gumbo Kitty still have to go over without us the end of June till mid October.

Dan has to get us a home (on base/or off... who knows), 2 cars (NOT the type I am used to: different side of the car, of the road, everything), schools for our babies (Noah's enrolled at a Japanese OFF BASE school!! GAH!), and just getting us moved in in general. I trust him but this is a lot to hand off to a husband! I trust him: after 10 plus years of being together, I do trust him. But letting go of the reigns is hard.

Noah, Ellyotte and I will travel with our main man, Dan, till he leaves the third week of June. We will go between DC, Panama City Beach, FL, Nashville, TN, Pike Road, Alabama.... then he's gone.... till October. Yes, I have the babies enrolled in an amazing school program come August (one of my precious sorority sisters is Elly's teacher), and yes, they will have my mom and dad and sister as a main line of support, but their daddy - and my husband of 7 years - will be obviously missing. I am thankful it isn't into harm's way that he's going, but he will be absent and that will be hard.

Dan will miss Elly's 2nd birthday, Noah and Ellyotte's first trip to Disney, Noah losing his first teeth, his first day of pre-K... he will miss a lot. And they will miss him. I will miss my partner. It is daunting to think that the next time we are together will be as a commanding partnership of the 35th OSS/Intel flight. Wow. That's an honor but it is daunting. Yet, I have faith in our partnership and in our love.

Dan will be an amazing commanding officer of the flight of which he will take command. And starting tomorrow, he will be an amazing Major for the active duty Air Force. I am thoroughly proud of my man. He picked up where I left off - as an active duty AF intelligence officer - and has made me/us/our families so proud.

Tomorrow will be special for us: we will have no family, other than our closest friends here in Louisiana, at Dan's promotion. He will have his beloved commanders there: LtCol Nesbitt will promote him and Colonel Randy Allen (retiring effective 1 June) will be there to witness it. Noah and Ellyotte will pin on one side of the rank and I will do the other. After that, our wonderful sitter and friend, Lauren, will take the babies to dinner and then onto bed while we host a fun promotion party at a local bar/restaurant. I am super proud. Super emotional. Super torn up about all of the changes in our lives.

We have seen them coming since mid-February when we learned of our next leadership assignment, but now it is here. It is real.

Pray for us as we embark on our next chapter of Air Force history. I am proud of my man and the little mark we are making in this military life.