To make a long story slightly shorter, Greg made a phone call or two, and we were faced with two options:
A. Stick to the original plan. Go to San Antonio. (He got that job.) Greg continues as an operational civil engineer. (Endure deployment after deployment until we grow so weary of the military that Greg gets out half way to retirement?)
or
B. Strike out in an entirely new direction. Greg deploys for one year, most likely to Honduras. Meanwhile, he applies for one of the Air Force's PhD slots, and, if he gets one, applies to PhD programs at schools. Fingers crossed: After said deployment, we go to a university for three years, then back here to AFIT where Greg would teach for three years.
Two entirely different paths lay before us. We recognized the consequences of this decision would affect us for the rest of our lives. Sometimes I make a really big deal out of really little things (my therapist has a fancy word for this that I can't remember right now). But this was not one of those times. This really was a big deal.
Not that there was anything especially unusual about the kind of decision we were making. Life is about choices. And sometimes they are really big.
What made this decision extra interesting is that we had just 18 hours in which to make it. (Greg had made that phone call just in time. We almost didn't have a chance to have a choice.) And Greg was out of town at the time. Not an ideal situation for making a really big decision together.
Good thing I'd known the answer before I even knew the question.
***
Reflections tomorrow on that shift in the universe, I hope. Fingers crossed: David goes to preschool and Mary takes a good morning nap.
