Matt is retiring from the army, so for the first time in 20 years WE actually get to choose where we are going to live. We are finding this difficult and actually sort of miss not having that part of our lives planned for us. Matt is applying for civilian jobs in many different states, but our preference is the Midwest...something close to our families in Oklahoma. His military experience and background would be the civilian equivalent of a Human Resource Manager, so he has lots of options. His focus right now is on government jobs, primarily doing exactly what he does in the army only as a civilian (and without the stress of deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan for 16 months at a time).
I'm going back to Oklahoma in April (with Hannah and Tara) and Matt and Alex will return in June. I guess if he doesn't have a job by then we will just have to pick a location and hope and pray for the job to come soon after. The security of the military retirement pay is reassuring, but we certainly can't live on that alone. I can also go back to teaching...I'm a special education teacher and there are usually openings in schools for those positions. I had hoped to stay home with Hannah for one more year, but am realizing it might not be possible. We are all so ready to get back to the states and get settled. The army has been a great career for Matt and we have lived in some great places, but it will be so nice to live in one place for longer than 3 years. After living in Europe for 9 years we are ready to travel in other parts of the world (like maybe a return trip to China!!)
