Awesome news!

We got some amazing news last week! It started on Thursday when we found out that Mitch is board-eligible, which means that he passed his test with a high enough score to be able to submit his package to the chief's board. If he is selected, he will be able to pin on chief at the end of September. We are so excited! I'm incredibly proud of him, and he so deserves this! He studied almost every day from August until January for the E-7 ranking test, so I'm not surprised he passed with flying colors. I really hope the chief's board sees what I see in him and they select him. He is already doing the work and responsibilities of a chief so we are really hoping he gets selected.

Then on Friday we found out that he is eligible for re-enlistment! This may sound funny to some of you, as it used to be that the military not only encouraged you to re-enlist but also gave you a compensation package for doing so. With the job instability in the civilian sector, people are not getting out of the military as often as they used to. This makes for impacted sections of the Navy. There are certain rates that people are actually being forced out of the military and given a severance package. They are essentially not allowed to re-enlist. Mitch's rate (electronic technician) is severely impacted. Unfortunately the program, called PTS, was not based on merit, but simply if you were up for re-enlistment last year, this year, or next year. Mitch's name had been on the list since last year, and every month his re-enlistment was denied. We had been praying fervently that God would make it clear to us which direction He wanted us to go (military or civilian) with this PTS decision. When Mitch got the email on Friday night we were both so elated! After getting the news that he was selected to go to the board, we both felt like the Lord wanted him to stay in the military, and this only confirmed it. He will be re-enlisting next month for six more years! We are so excited to be confident that we are going in God's direction.

Now on to picking orders! (stay tuned)

Love,

N