Milestones.  We all have them - certain birthdays, graduations, marriage, childbirth, moves.  For most people, they arrive in a specific order.  The major birthdays (at least in our family) - 10, 13, 16, 18, 21 - are predictable and celebrated for what they are - a change from one phase of life to the next.  Generally, after high school would come college, graduation, marriage, career and/or children, retirement.  My life, however, has taken some interesting diversions from that path.

For starters, when I graduated from high school, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I wasn't planning on college, since I had been discouraged from even exploring that option because my high school experience was, well, less than stellar.  So I started working at Fireman's Fund of America, an insurance company in Cleveland, Ohio.  I was a file clerk. Yippee. It was a job I quickly tired of, so I started looking at something different.  My brother was in the Air Force at the time, so I decided to explore that option.  Talks with recruiters, physicals, tests, taking the oath of office, and soon I was on my way to Lackland Air Force Base.  I trained as an administrative specialist (file clerk!) at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, then moved to Omaha, Nebraska.  I worked in a vault, in the basement of the Strategic Air Command Headquarters, doing administrative work for a team that gave classified briefings. 

Boredom set in, as we only worked when there was a briefing to present, about once every 10 days or so.  So, I looked for other opportunities.  I heard that I could cross train into the legal field, and put in my application.  Approval meant another trip to Biloxi, Mississippi for more training, and I returned to Omaha as a paralegal specialist. 

While I was in the military, there was another milestone - marriage.  I married my first husband within 4 months of meeting him.  I would say we rushed into it, with little to no marriage counseling, and had that been different, then things would likely have turned out differently. But that is another story for another time. 

Milestones continued - more children, health issues, an overseas move and back, getting out of the military, starting college, moving cross country, working, then not.  Then came a move to Washington DC, where a significant milestone, which I have written previously about, came - and that was divorce and having to find my way alone again.  But God provided in so many ways, leading to yet another milestone - a move to Arizona.

Life here was fairly normal, as normal as you can get in a blended family.  After all the kids graduated (a milestone for them!), and I puttered around for two years, I decided to finally reach the milestone I hadn't yet - college.  I graduated this year from Liberty University (also written about previously), and just this past week reached yet another milestone - I started a job as an administrative assistant to the worship pastor at our church.  This, to me, is a significant milestone. I've wanted to work in full time ministry for as long as I can remember.   It hasn't been a reality until now.  My prayer is that I will not disappoint the Lord, but do well to represent him and the church in everything I do. 

Milestones.  There are only a few remaining.  I have grand children, so that milestone is checked off.  Next comes retirement for Tom and only the Lord knows what that is going to bring.