New Life & Old Friends

Well folks, as promised, I'm now updating you on our life events from the oh-so-sunny state of Florida! That's right, we made it! After a 14 hour car ride with my wonderful mother-in-law, we arrived in the sunny, hot, and humid city of Panama City. The PCS (permanent change of station) went surprisingly smooth. Not only were our movers on time, but very few items were broken or damaged which is nearly a miracle from what I've heard. We feel very blessed to be back in a "real" home and to finally put down some roots again, even if it's only for a short time.

Home Sweet Home

I'm absolutely in love with our new home. After our previous 1950's box dated home, this is a HUGE upgrade. Not only are we no longer conjoined with another home, but we have two stories and you guessed it....a garage (heaven)!

I'd like to offer a huge shout out to my amazing in-laws. Unfortunately my sweet husband wasn't able to be there the day we moved in, signed the lease, and ran around base like chickens with our head's cut off and almost got pulled over by Security Forces while trying to navigate. However, my amazing in-laws spent 48 hours hanging, fixing, cleaning, and unpacking almost our entire house. I feel so incredibly blessed that even though I don't have my own sweet mother here with me anymore to help in times like these, I have some awesome new family members who are always willing to jump in and help last minute. 

Winston was clearly the
most helpful mover/unpacker!

I can honestly say that I get more and more excited with each passing day about being here at our new station. The #1 best part so far...already having a sweet sweet friend that lives down the street. We were actually duplex partners at Laughlin and were so blessed to have gotten to know this incredible lady and her husband while we were there before we all went our separate ways. As fate had it we ended up at the same base and in the same airframe. Just knowing that I had a close friend here in this big city, was the most comforting feeling one could have when moving somewhere new.

Before I left her house after a short "hello" visit filled with lots of hugs and giggles she said something that really stuck with me. She said, "having you here and seeing you again makes me so happy, it feels like you brought a little piece of home with you". That's what's so amazing about the Air Force, and the military in general I'm assuming, especially the pilot community. You get the opportunity to meet some incredibly amazing people and you make lasting friendships in such a short amount of time. And even though you have to say goodbye eventually, it's more of a "see you later", because you never know when God will place you together again. I think that each military spouse carries around a "piece of home" with them wherever they go and when we meet those special friends again down the road we get to share that familiarity and know that our home, although it physically changes often, is spread out all over the world in the hearts of those we love and connect with on this journey in the Air Force. So far I love this journey we're on and wouldn't change it for anything. Feeling extra blessed these days.

Love,

The Etheridges