God's Love Language: Part I - "The Air Force Story"

The original post became too long, so I'm breaking it up into two segments :)

Part I - "The Air Force Story"

If you've heard me talk about this before, some of this may sound familiar. But please bare with me. This is the account of how God lead me to the Air Force (something I never dreamed of for myself)... I don't mean to brag, but it's pretty stellar:

If you would have told me four years ago that I would be in the military, I would have told you you were crazy. I first heard of Air Force ROTC upon attending my freshmen nursing orientation with my dad. To be honest, I didn't pay much attention to what they were saying... "Pay for school, yadda yadda, automatic job afterwards, yadda yadda." (With this economy, I don't know how I didn't grab onto this sooner! haha). On the drive home, my dad said, "So Kait, what did you think about that whole ROTC thing?" Rolling my eyes, barely believing that my dad had even brought it up, I just said, "No, Dad. Don't even think about it. I do not want to be in the military." And on this rare occasion, he left it at that (haha, love you Dad!). The military? No way... my plans for post-college at that point were to (1) marry the man I would meet in college (yes, this was a "plan"), (2) become an international missionary with my husband using my newly gained nursing skills and his "whatever" skills, (3) maybe work somewhere back in the States for a few years, (4) maybe do grad school, and (5) have kids in there somewhere. Call me crazy, but that's what I wanted and what I thought for certain would happen.

But as school drew nearer and the reality of paying ~$20,000/year for four years of school started to sink in, I started taking a look at my options. For some reason, I kept being pulled to look at the military. As much as I detested the thought at the time, I couldn't deny the benefits of having the military pay for my school... and like many of my colleagues, that is why I first looked into Air Force ROTC. Thankfully, that is not why I have stayed :) I figured that I would try it out for the first semester, see if I liked it, all while having a crafty way of keeping off that famed "Freshmen 15"! If at the end of the semester I didn't like it, I could walk away with no regrets and the ability to say, "Well, at least I tried it."

But after getting through a stressful first few weeks (those in ROTC know those are the worst! You feel totally incompetent bc you don't know anything!), I was hooked. I loved the discipline I was learning, the people I was meeting, and the sense of belonging (the strongest second only to the church!) I was feeling. At the end of the semester, I decided to apply to go on scholarship - where the military pays for your school, and you in turn commit to serving for a set number of years afterwards. I was nervous... a four-year's time commitment felt HUGE to me at that time. What could happen in those four years? Could I really handle the military lifestyle? I had a serious boyfriend at the time... how would he feel about it? Would he be ok with it? Was this really what God has in mind for me?

Do you ever try to "play games" with God? Saying, "Ok, God if you want me to do x, then you y." Well, I did that. I basically "said" to God, "Ok, God. If you want me to be in the Air Force, then have this scholarship go through by the end of the semester (the winter semester of freshmen year)." Ha, I've since learned from that experience that if you decide to put God to the test, don't be surprised when He flips it back around on you.

So I applied in January, and months, literally months went by without the scholarship going through. First some documentation got screwed up, then my file got sent to the wrong place, and my application just wasn't going where it needed to go. It came down to the last two weeks of school. I was begging God at this point, "Lord, please, if you really do want me to be in the Air Force, please let this work out." And I just kept feeling like He was asking me, "Kaitlyn, do you trust me? Do you trust me?" I finally got a call from now retired MSgt Christon (an amazing woman of God and one of the best NCO's (non-commissioned officer) in the Air Force!) two days before the end of the semester saying my application had been approved. I remember hanging up from that conversation and saying out loud, "Ok God, here we go!". I came in the next day (the day before the end of the semester), signed the paper work, swore in, and was officially a member of Air Force. Come to find out several years later that the day she called me, MSgt Christon felt God leading her to call a certain person about my file... a person who normally doesn't have anything to do with scholarship applications. Upon learning of my situation, that person literally went to a cubicle next door to them, picked up my file, walked across the street and hand-delivered it to the people who needed to approve it. Can you say A TOTAL GOD THING!!!!!

God has been using the Air Force in my life in so many ways! Please stay tuned for Part II of this installment - "God's Love Language: Part II - Obedience" - as I share about just one thing that God has been teaching me through the Air Force.