Changes

Ok, confession time.  It has been a while since I updated the blog.  Shame on me!  I should have done better.  A lot has happened over the past several months to keep us busy, but I should have blogged about it.  I'm sorry.  I'll do better.  I promise.

As most of you know, 2013 was a bit of a roller coaster for Jason and me.  He spent the better part of the year in training for a new job assignment, on top of being sidelined for a while with his dog bite injury.  Combine training, injury, rehab, special assignments, and our whirlwind DC trip and you pretty much have 2013 in a nutshell.  There were other peaks and valleys, but no need to rehash it all here.

Fast forward to today.  I was sitting in my living room, watching Jason.   He was boxing up equipment, getting uniforms together to turn in, and cleaning weapons to give back that he will not need anymore in his new line of duty.  I almost lost it.  I may loose it now as I try to write about it.

As I watched my hero, standing there in his new "uniform" of 5.11 pants, tac boots and a monogram polo shirt, I had the most bittersweet nostalgia you can imagine.  Gone are the days of a traditional uniform every day.  Gone are the days of his office being a car.  Gone are the days of regular nights shifts.  He will still have call outs, special details, late nights, and on call; but it will be different from his on the road days.  Very different.  He will still have special occasions where he needs to wear his dress uniform, but those will be far more of a rarity than ever before.

His regular routine will now be going to an office in Montgomery.  He won't have to wear a vest everyday.  He won't have to do many of the things he has been accustomed to doing over the past 8 years.  It is the ending of a era, the beginning of something new and wonderful, the culmination of a year's worth of training, being away from home, working two jobs for one salary and having more on our plate than we really knew what to do with.  This is what 2013 was for.  Now that it is here, I'm proud, relieved, excited for him and at the same time, I am sad.

Jason was a uniformed officer when we met.  I know that is not who he is, it is just what he does.  But you must know that he has wanted to be a Trooper since he was a little boy.  He waited patiently during hiring freezes and age restrictions to finally get to the point to go to the Academy for his dream job.  And he had it.  He loved it.  He was good at it.

My husband will tell you that he is beyond blessed to have the job that he has always wanted and then to have to opportunity to move on to another job that he thought he could only dream about.  We prayed over the job change and I'll be the first to tell you that I wasn't 100% sure about it.  For starters, that whole having to work every Auburn home game was enough for me to say no!  But this is what Jason wanted to do, felt called to do, and believed in his core that he needed to do.  I'm so proud of him and following his heart, his dreams, and the direction he felt the Lord was leading him.

As he turns in his car and other equipment to solidify his ending of his Highway Patrol days, I know he will be filled with the same bittersweet nostalgia that I have written about today.  This is without a doubt one of the biggest changes we have made in our lives and the hardest part is that we don't know yet the full impact it will have on our life. (No pun intended for those who know Jason's new line of work!)  There are numerous changes that will be coming in State government and law enforcement over the next couple of years.  I don't know that much about it and I think even the powers that be are a bit confused with how it will all shake out.  While I have been a bit disappointed to see Jason loose his "Trooper" title, I know that he is exactly where he needs to be and where the Lord intends for him to be.  All of the rest will fall into place.

(For those of you who may not know us personally, Jason is now full time ABI, Alabama Bureau of Investigation.)