Knee Deep in the Hooah!

I have been amazed more than once since starting this blog and starting our journey into military life at some of the incredible meetings we have had with others. I am not someone who believes in coincidences, so I can only accept these meetings and circumstances as blessings just waiting to be had.

I mentioned once before on this blog that a reader and I began exchanging emails back in August of last year (I believe that’s when we first said “hi” to one another). We were both very OPSEC rigid at the start, and so neither of us were willing to give much information to the other about our particular soldier. The only thing we both knew was we each had a soldier in Iraq and they both served in a Stryker Brigade. That only narrowed it down to a degree.

Over time we began sharing just a tad more information, like first names. Then we finally got confirmation one day, me on my end and her on her’s … we found out through our soldiers that only were they at the same FOB, but they know one another! I think we both were taken back. What were the odds that the two of us would meet through this blog and find out that our guys know one another!? I have never mentioned publicly any of Mike’s Division info, Company info or any detailed information. It was not a coincidence at all. This person has been a very good friend to me, and has been able to support me through some tough times since she knows the more detailed happenings that our guys have gone through, such as the losses they have shared.

I have also corresponded with another reader whose husband had a very similar fracture to Mr. Hooah!’s and had just finished OCS. We joke that the two of them were probably hobbling past one another in the same hospital as they were recovering from their injuries. It would take pages for me to explain all of the uncanny parallels that this new found friend and I share. Similar backgrounds professionally, other similarities between our husbands, and much more. No doubt that she is, indeed, another blessing. I have a few other stories similar to those two that I could share, but there is another story that is too incredible to pass up.

When Mr. Hooah! joined the military there was a write up in our local paper. Someone who heard our story contacted someone she knew at the local paper. Originally there was to be a female reporter who would come to our house for the interview and she would write the story up. A day or two before the interview, she called to let me know that a gentleman from the paper would be coming out in her place. She reassured me that he would be the best reporter for the story since he had a lot more experience writing up military related stories. We were fine with that. Ultimately our goal was for the paper to tell our story in hopes that others who were interested in joining at an older age would realize they could do it! We also wanted the community to know what a good job our local recruiters do with new recruits.

The reporter and the recruiter showed up the morning of the interview. It all went well and the write up was nice. So, it sounds like that is the end of the story, right? Keep reading.

I joined the YMCA the very week that Bryan left for boot camp. I did this to help me deal with the stress of both guys’ deployments and to get myself back to a reasonable state of health. For a long time I didn’t “know” many of the other people who worked out at the Y, but there were many familiar faces — they were the regulars, like me, who come on a regular basis. Over time I started to get to know more people, and several of the moms from my MOPS group began surfacing too. Then one day I saw the reporter who interviewed us at the Y. When I saw him there it jogged my memory that the recruiter had called me and asked if I would be willing to talk with this reporter and his wife if they had any questions. He had decided to possibly pursue an OCS commission.

When I saw Cliff (the reporter) I asked him how he and his wife were doing and told him that if they ever wanted to talk with me they were welcome to call anytime. I didn’t realize then that they have two very sweet girls who had been playing with my Emma this whole time.

Fast forward to the broken hip insanity and Bryan coming home. One day we were at the Y together and we see Cliff. Bryan gives him our phone number and email address. Cliff mentions the next time we see him that he had talked with his wife, Kristen, and they wanted to know if we would like to come to supper one night. We accepted the invitation and had a very delightful night and we knew right away we had made some quality friends. Emma had such a wonderful time that she thanked Cliff and Kristen for the “wonderful party!” She now refers to their girls as “my pretty girls!” She adores them both.

Guess what? Cliff left for Ft. Benning last week, and he starts OCS soon. He is prior service as a Marine, and Kristen is here for now. She is doing a great job holding down the fort, planning those moves, selling the house, and watching all of the pieces of the puzzle graciously fall into place as her faith deepens. It’s a wonderful thing to witness, and they are a wonderful family to pray for.

It was no coincidence that Bryan joined when he did and that the first reporter could not keep her appointment with us. It is no coincidence that Kristen’s smile was already familiar to me, as I had seen it before at the Y, and Emma knew the girls. It was no coincidence that a reader of this blog wrote to me about her Stryker soldier and became a much needed friend — only for us to find out that our soldiers are friends too while in Iraq together. It’s no coincidence that I wrote a summation of our year at the same time that another Officer’s wife read my blog and heard that my husband and her husband had more in common than attend OCS at Benning. It is all too uncanny for me to accept as mere circumstances. Blessings are a much better word to describe them, for sure.

When you ponder the world it can be very overwhelming to contemplate its size and the number of people who inhabit it. The world seems infinitely huge. Within it is contained moments of finite familiarity when a stranger really does wind up being a long lost friend or relative, and when a scary and unfamiliar place suddenly feels like home.

Congratulations Cliff and Kristen! God speed to you both, and Hooah!