Our Post Marine Corps Life

God is good all the time!

Life after the Marine Corps has been a struggle in many ways, some of these things we knew and were as prepared as possible and some things we never seen coming. Life after the Marine Corps has also been wonderful and a blessing in many ways.

So many people have asked us why we choose to be done with it, well we did not choose it and we did not want it. Although life in the military has it's many ups and downs we did enjoy being a military family and we did like the benefits that came with it especially in this economy. Let me just give a little bit of the history as to what happened in our road to bring us to no longer being in the Marine Corps.

I think the story really begins back when Roland was still in Afghanistan in 2011. While he was there he was actively trying to get his 4 year re-enlistment in (this was while a 4 year was still possible) and trying to put in a packet to do recruiting so he could have his B-billet. Although the career planner that was over there with him basically kept screwing him around and Roland just doesn't really push people to get what he wants well so he did not get stuff done while there. They got back in December 2011 from Afghanistan and all went on leave, by the time they got back it was January 2012 and the new Marine Corps order came out. This order, in short, does not allow a Marine to re-enlist for more then 2 years after his 8 year mark, they have to make SSgt by 10 years to be able to re-enlist another 2 years and so on. (I am not sure how long the 2 year only re-enlistment goes but that is not important for my story.) So now Roland was putting in for his 2 year re-enlistment and was still trying to get in his recruiting packet in. Along with signing up for as much training as possible to make it clear to those in his chain of command he is driven as a Marine. Well he got his 2 year re-enlistment approved and he also got put on a training that would be in NC for a month in April 2012. He wanted to do his ceremony for the re-enlistment in NC so that the girls and I could be there since we planned on going and staying with friends there so we could be with Roland for this month. I on the other hand told Roland I would rather he just do his ceremony in CA so we knew we had the 2 year locked in and could breath easy (for those who don't know you have to do the ceremony in a certain amount of time before the approved re-enlistment is no good). I let Roland decide in the end where to do his ceremony so he chose to do it in NC, he began talking to the career planner there to work out all the details Well in short Roland tried to get a hold of the career planner in NC and was not able to for his ceremony even though he talked to her before he got there to make sure everything would work out. So in short he was not able to do the ceremony while in NC and by the time he got back to CA he could no longer do this, his only chose at this point was to put in for an extension. He did not put in for the extension right away because he was thinking about things more talking to people about what he could do at this point. Roland put in the paper work for his extension in Sept 2012, by that time his entire chain of command had changed, most of these people did not know Roland at all or very little. After a few months (December 2012) Roland was told that his extension would most likely not be approved, we were in shock to say the least. Neither one of us seen this coming at all, we thought that because Roland had just had a 2 year re-enlistment approved that this would get approved as well with no issues. This all meant Roland would be discharged at the end of February 2013, something we were far from prepared for. We did not officially find out Roland's extension was not approved until the end of January 2013 so that only gave us a month to get a LOT of stuff done and taken care of. His command ended up giving us a 30 day extension to give us time to get some thing taken care of since we just had a baby and everything that moved Roland's new EAS date to March 27, 2013. 

So our post Military life began on March 28, 2013.

The movers came and packed us all up and we moved back to Ohio to be near family and live with my parents until we figured out what we would do next. So as of right now we are still living with my parents, Roland is trying to get his PTSD and other medical stuff with the VA taken care of while apply for jobs and going to college part time. I am currently going to college part time and trying to find a part time job for some extra income so we are able to find a place of our own in the Defiance Area. 

Before Roland even put in the paper work for his extension we had talked very little about it not getting approved, something we were sure would not happen. I had told him then that if it didn't get approved then God had different plans for our lives and that the military was not in that plan for us. I still believe that today, I know with all my heart that God brought us back to Ohio for a reason although I do not know what that plan is at the moment I am confident that we are where we are suppose to be. After so much prayer and talking as a couple we decided it was time for me to stop putting college on hold and go for it. I have put all my faith in God to help us through the college years even if that means not going more then part time at least I am one step closer to that. Roland is still not sure what he wants to go to college for but wanted to give it a try and make sure he can handle it while having a family, a job and PTSD. So for now that is where everything in our lives stand and I am very hopeful for our future because I know that no matter what God is in control of it all. 

7 Months Old!

All I can say is thank you Lord for blessing me with this little piece of heaven. This little boys smile is one of the best things in life, he can turn my bad days to happiness with one little smile. I know God gave him to us to bring us happiness and hope in the midst of all our current struggles. He is always giggling and happy, he is constantly challenging me to look at things differently and he is only 7 months old!

There are lots of changes this month in what Zeddrick is doing, I'm amazed at how much he has learned in one short month.

• He is still in 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers when he wears disposables.
• He now has 4 TEETH, 2 on top and 2 on bottom.
• He is pulling himself up to standing position and he is cruising.
• He is finally starting to like food, he eats cereal twice a day now, in the morning and in the evening. We are going to start trying baby food this month sometime. 
• He is still getting up multiple times a night, I think it is because he's teething, but nothing I do seems to help so he has become my night time cuddle buddy.
• He loves to play with everything and anything and plays best when his sisters leave him alone. 
• He is a super fast crawler, he can make it from one side of the house to the other in no time at all. 
• He does not like to be away from mom if he can't see me he comes looking for me. 

This last month Zeddrick was dedicated at church. He was such a ham while we were up there just smiling and giggling at Pastor Rick. 

Looking handsome for his dedication.