A Miracle for The Shermans

As many of you know, Jake and I have been living on the edge over the past several months as a "military family". Jake is just finishing his 7th year in the Army National Guard and his scheduled ETS date (contract end date with this unit, basically) is November 20th.

Recently, we received word that his unit would be deploying in March, 2009. There were many dates, schedules, etc., that played into this deployment date that left us unsure as to whether Jake would be going on this deployment in March. Shortly after hearing that his unit would be deployed, we received a "stop loss" date for Jake (in civilian's terms, a stop loss date is a date that the military assigns to a unit being deployed to snag soldiers who are nearing the end of their service into a deployment. It's their way of "minimizing loss"). The date assigned was November 21st. That's right, one day after Jake's scheduled end date with this unit. After 7 years of military b.s., I knew better than to do back flips over this one day saving grace.

Jake has been working tirelessly to get answers from his commanding officers about where his name is, what list it's on, whether he will be stop lossed, whether he'll be deploying again. What the stop loss date all came down to was when this unit was scheduled to travel overseas in March. Because so many troops are deploying in March (over 3,000), the Army has arranged for multiple travel dates. Jake's stop loss date was entirely dependant on when his unit was scheduled to fly out.

Long long long story short, yesterday we received formal Military Orders that said that any soldier who's ETS date is on or before November 26, 2008, will be allowed to ETS - translation: JAKE IS HOME. HE'S HOME TO STAY. HE'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE. HOOAH.

Thanks to EVERY last one of you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. This last year of so many unknowns has been more stressful on Jake and I than I could've ever imagined. Our approach to getting through this has always been to think positively and reassure each other that when this is all over, our lives will be so much more relaxed, calm and happy. Yesterday, after receiving the news, I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. I know Jake felt the same, because for the first time in a very long time, I heard his laugh. That good old Jake laugh that we all know and love.

Hallelujah!!