Lane has joined the Army. Now while you pick your jaw up off the floor, let me explain. We get the same reaction from everyone when we tell them. Shock, surprise, they think we're crazy!! He has just finished up his first semester of Nursing school at UVU, so he will be a nurse in the Army, not in the front lines fighting!
This has been ongoing for a couple of months now. It all came about by Lane's great uncle who told him to look into it. When I first heard that I thought, "yeah right! Are you kidding me!" But then we started looking into it and decided maybe this was the right thing to do. We first sat down with both of our parents to get their input and what they thought. They were both very supportive. I wasn't sold on it because those that know me, know that I am very much a home body. I have basically lived in one place my entire life and would never leave. So this is extremely out of my comfort zone. But after much thought, and prayer I finally realized this was what we needed to do. Lane, however was back and forth. One day he thought it was right, the next he didn't want to do it. Which I completely understood.
After many discussions Lane finally realized this is what he needed to do. So he met with Colonel Sturgeon only to find out that they aren't accepting that many people. They went from having 200 spots available to 69 spots. Lane had to pass a medical exam as well as a physical. He had to run 2 miles, do push ups and sit ups in a certain amount of time. He also had to be at a certain weight. After he had worked his butt off to do all of this we found out he was number 70 on the list! We were very discouraged and also found out that they aren't accepting any nurses because they have too many in the Army right now. Luckily, someone dropped out which meant Lane was next on the list. Our prayers were answered and he got in!! He is the only nurse in the country that got into the program, it's called Army ROTC.
So here is how it will work. In the summer he as to go to a 4 week program in Fort Knox, Kentucky. It will be kind of like a mini boot camp. It will be hard but no where near what they do at full on boot camp. Then while he is in nursing school he will have to take one Army related class a semester which is basically just a fitness class. Once he graduates, in 2013, we will move to San Antonio, Texas for 2 1/2 months where he will be trained how to be a nurse in the Army. After that we will be "stationed" somewhere for up to 4 years where he will be a nurse in a hospital. The Army also provides 2 of the top 5 CRNA programs (Nurse anesthesia school) in the country and if he does well they will put him in the program and pay for it. We will have a little bit of say as to where we want to live when it comes to that point. We are looking at a minimum of 7 years that he will be working for the Army. But if we really like it he'll probably work his 20 years and retire.
There are sooo many good things that will come out of this. But there are also some bad things. Let me start with the good first.
they will pay for school (must work for them for 4 years after graduation)
they will pay up to a certain amount of student loans off (must work another 3 years for them)
benefits
being able to take our family to new places that we would probably never be able to go
we see it as job security, once he graduates he will have a job
experiencing something new as a family
Now the bad. . .
When deployed the duration will be for 6 months at a time. This is what made it really hard for Lane to decide if he wanted to do it or not. But we received some good advice from my Dad, saying "You can't think of what will happen in the future." With nurses they try to make it so you are deployed only once every 3 years. I am really nervous for this but our families are very supportive of us.
Moving away from friends and family. This was probably the hardest thing for me. I am especially close with my parents and have always lived close to them. I have also made some very good friends here, but after talking to friends who have moved away from home found out this would be good for us to experience life on our own. It still scares the crap out of me and if I think about it for too long I get very emotional. It will be hard to take the kids away from their friends, grandparents and cousins but I try to think about the positive things and look at this whole thing as an adventure with my little family. Good thing I have 2 1/2 years to prepare for it.
I am so proud of Lane, though. He puts the needs for our family above anything else, and would do anything for me and his children. I'm excited for this new phase in our life together.
