i’m an army wife now…

So this is a long overdue post. I apologize to anyone who is reading this and is wondering why you didn’t get the heads up that Clint was joining the Army. Well the public nature of this blog means that we have several faithful readers who were co-workers of Clint’s at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. We purposefully didn’t post throughout the time leading up to the Army because we didn’t want word to get out at Enterprise and have him loose his job before it was time. In the time since Clint quit, life has been ultimately chaotic and blogging has taken a backseat to things like moving, doctors appointments, and sending Clint off to Basic Training for ten weeks.

So now let’s recap the last year. First off, we love Enterprise Rent-A-Car (ERAC). We leave with nothing but positive feelings and would still recommend Enterprise to people. The nature of Clint’s position at ERAC was that we basically lived off commission. We had a tiny base salary that we couldn’t live off of so we depended on his commission to take car of basic needs like housing, food and transportation. We have had several months with literally less than $200 in commission and we struggled. This is a HUGE reason we left Enterprise, because Clint could do 60+ hours of hard work in a week and have nothing to show for it. There are other reasons for leaving which I won’t get into here but his integrity was at stake and it was time to move on.

So now we are to September ‘08. I’m HUGELY pregnant and we are only making it financially because of God’s grace. Clint casually mentions as we look over another dismal pay stub, “I could always join the Army.” And there was the little seed that the Lord planted. The subject was dismissed and not brought up again for three months. But since that fateful comment I was praying about just that, Clint joining the Army. So when December’s pitiful check showed up I mention the Army to Clint. Evidently we had been praying about the same opportunity. So several trips to a recruiter, the Lord dynamically changing my heart, and lots of wise counsel and pray, we make the final decision for Clint to pursue the Army in the field of Aviation with the hopes of becoming a Warrant Officer and flying helicopters. There was a LOT that went on in between his first visit to a recruiter in December and his signing his contract in February. I am trying to give you an abbreviated version.

So here is where we stand now. I dropped Clint off at his recruiter’s office on Tuesday. He is at Ft. Benning, GA now for the next 10 weeks for Basic Training. During that time we can only communicate via snail mail. From there he will go for his job training at Ft. Eustis, VA for 24 weeks. In mid to late November Clint will be done with training and we will get our first post. We don’t know where we will be going, and that is exciting because there is a good chance that we will be posted over seas. In the upcoming years there will be countless ministry opportunities for both Clint and I and that is SO exciting! There are some perks (other than living over seas and telling people about Jesus). The Army is paying every penny of Clint’s student loans (to the tune of 50K+ leaving us debt free), we have free housing and a food allowance, and I have the freedom to travel more with the kids. There are many more things that we are excited about but those are the big ones.

People I’m sure think we are crazy. We remind those people that we have sought the Lord through out this entire process, we were willing to walk away from everything if the Army couldn’t guarantee us one of two jobs and a few other terms, and Clint and I are definitely the type of people to thoroughly think things through and never do anything flippantly. We are going to have to make a lot of sacrifices and a lot of changes and so far we are really excited and willing to trust the Lord to pull us through.

We appologize for blind-siding anyone. It was not done intentionally.

-Megan

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