Vaillant Family Update

Remember that last update when I said I would send Eric alone if the Air Force tried to send us to Japan?  Well turns out they are and the Vaillant Family will be in Japan for two years!  We got the news that they were changing Eric's orders to Yokota Air Base 10 days before we would have closed on a new home in Virginia.  We were initially very shocked, upset, and disappointed.  We were really excited about the house, the neighborhood, and living close to friends and family.  I really didn't want to believe it and it took me a few days to get past the tears and start to find the positives in the situation.  When Eric first found out we got Langley he had me listen to his voicemail that they left telling him where his orders would be.  We had been waiting for news for months and on the last day in April we finally found out.  I screamed when I heard and woke up the kids I was so happy.  We went house hunting the very next week and found our dream home.  We were making many plans for what we would do there and it all seemed too good to be true.  And then it was.  When Eric came home from work the day we found out his orders were changing, he looked totally defeated and the most upset I have ever seen him.  We talked a little, I cried a lot, and he called his parents telling them the news.  I broke the news to my family the next day.  Its been almost two weeks since we found out.  Our to-do list has gotten much longer to prepare the family to move overseas.  We are fitting in Dr. and Dentist appointments, getting passports, and trying to downsize our household goods.  We closed on our townhouse in MD this week and the buyers agreed to let us stay a couple weeks longer after we told them our situation.  This was a huge stress relief for us since we can't schedule the movers until we have the new orders and there are a lot of things we have to do before getting them.  We will celebrate Eric's graduation from residency this Friday night and he will be done at Union Memorial in 2 weeks.  He takes his boards on July 7th and then he will be off until we make the move to Japan mid-August.  We are looking forward to his extra time off and will get to visit with lots of friends and family before the move.  One of the hardest things was telling Hayden the news.  When we did sit down to tell him, he initially cried and the first thing he said was "I don't even speak the language!"  After telling him all the positives he calmed down and by the end of the night he was saying "I can't wait to go to Japan!"  I guess I could learn a good lesson from my 7 year old on change.  It has taken me a little longer to get excited about the move but I am now starting to see it as an adventure for our family.  I know God has a plan for us and I write all this because I want to look back on this time, remember all the emotions, and hopefully say we are so blessed to have had the experience.