Joel's Lifelong Dream is about to Become Reality!!!

Well, next week starts the chaos of Graduation week for Joel.  I am so proud of him.  This is something ha has been working towards a lot longer then the 2 years he has been in Flight School.  When he first joined the Air Force in 2003, he started working towards his degree so he could become an Officer and fly.  That has always been his goal.  Do you need proof?  Let me see if I can dig up this old picture of him.  Found one.  Not sure if you can see it very clearly, but this is the outside of our wedding program 8 1/2 years ago, but the picture is much older than that.  I would guess Joel is maybe 8.  And he built this plane and wrote USAF on it.  How sweet is that, and this next week he will finally be reaching that dream, when he gets his Aviator Wings pinned on him.  Did I mention that I am so proud of him?  I am!!!!

He went to Boot Camp during our first year of marriage.

That was tough, but we made it through and then after he went to his Tech School, we moved down to Eglin AFB in FL.  There he worked as an F-15 Crew Chief on the flight line for 6 years. 

He had long hard, manual labor days, but he would come home and be taking classes toward finishing his degree.  He is such a hard worker and he stuck with it.  In November of 2008, a week and a half after Tessa was born, Joel was commissioned as a USAF Officer,

and headed off to Flight School at NAS Whiting Field to do the first half of his flight school with the Navy. 

We were there in Milton for 18 months, almost to the day.  On April 8, 2010, he was selected to go the T-38 track.

So, in May we left FL where we had been for 6 1/2 years and moved to Enid, OK so he could finish up his Flight Training here at Vance AFB.  On Jan. 7, 2011 we found out that Joel would be flying the C-5 Galaxy

and we will be getting stationed at Dover AFB in Delaware.

9 months, almost to the day that he track selected, Joel will be graduating and pinning on his wings.  It has been a long, hard road, but well worth it.
We are excited that Joel's parents will be flying in on Tuesday and his grandfather and aunt will be coming in on Wednesday, and my parents will be coming in on Thursday for the celebration.  There will be an open house so we can all see the planes up close, and try out the simulators and see what Joel has done day in and day out for the last 9 months.  There will also be the graduation ceremony where Joel receives his wings.  That will be so awesome.  So amazing to see this lifelong dream of his finally coming true. Also that weekend is a formal, what the Air Force calls, "Dining Out".  We get to dress up all fancy and just have a fun night of dinner and awards given out and just a fun, time after all the hard work.  We are so looking forward to this week.
CONGRATS JOEL!  WE ARE ALL SO PROUD OF YOU!!!