She’d never been away from home.

Well, she did go away to college. Fifteen miles away. So, I repeat: She’d never been away from home. Not until she moved 7,315 miles away to Okinawa.

She grew up in Iowa Park, Texas, surrounded by a nice, big extended family. She graduated from high school in 2000 and went down the road to Midwestern State University where she dabbled in taking classes for awhile. She worked while taking classes… selling life jackets & pool floats at the family business, proudly wearing the Sam’s Club uniform for awhile, working as a bank teller, and then she landed the ultimate job. Apartment manager.

I laughed while picturing Mr. Treeger from Friends. But she explained there were 208 high-end apartments, she lived rent & utility free AND got paid a salary. A sweet deal.

But the biggest perk of the job was that when Megan decided it might be time to look for Mr. Right, all she had to do was reach up and open the blinds and watch as the competition walked by. And the winner was… TRIP, a “Green to Gold” guy completing training for his transition to the Air Force at a local facility. He moved into her apartment complex on February 12, 2004 and three years later on that date, they were married.

He was moved to New Mexico for more training, but since they knew he’d soon deploy to Iraq, she stayed home until he returned from the Gulf.

I learned a lot about Megan when she told me about the birth of her son Caleb in 2006. He was due on May 3. But since she had 208 rent checks due on the 1st, she knew that just wouldn’t work! When she went to her OB appointment on the first and the doctor decided her blood pressure was a bit too high and he said they needed to induce the next day, she said, "No, I’ve still got too much to do this week. I’ll come in on Thursday (the 4th)." Amazingly, he agreed, making her promise she’d come by 5pm that day.

She left to attend a Relay for Life meeting (her aunt died of cancer and the fundraising race has become very important to their entire family) and began to wonder if her water had broken. But since she’d recently had a pregnant girlfriend be told by her doctor that NO it wasn’t her water breaking, she was just loosing control of her bladder, Megan refused to believe it was anything significant. So she went from the meeting to home, reminding herself she did NOT have time for this. The baby needed to wait. Trip finally woke her after several hours of sleep to say, "I think we need to go to the hospital, you’re moaning every 20 minutes." And off they went. Unfortunately, Trip had a big test to take that morning, and somehow Megan managed to hold of the actual delivery until he arrived.

Trip was expected to return from Iraq the following January, so Megan did move far, far away to New Mexico. Of course he didn’t return until March and for those to months she struggled through life knowing no one. Knowing nothing of the area. In fact, her first weekend in NM, two feet of snow fell and when she quickly went to take out the trash, the glass door behind her locked. With Caleb inside. She didn’t have a phone. It was nearly dark. She didn’t know a soul. A woman pulled in to the house next door and was greeted by an hysterical Megan. The woman calmly pulled a pocket knife out of her purse and broke in through the front door.

She didn’t love New Mexico. She said it smelled like dirty cows.

And she admits that she was one of those. One of those who didn’t love Okinawa either.

They had hoped to get orders to Dallas. Halfway between her family and Trip’s daughter in Louisiana. But they got orders to Okinawa instead. To say the least, her family was NOT thrilled. Caleb is the first grandchild. She’d already moved far away to New Mexico. Okinawa was unthinkable. She felt the same way.

And her feelings didn’t improve when they got here in May 2007. The one plan had been for her to finish college here. She had begun a degree in Elementary Education and wanted to complete it. Her family is filled with teachers and it’s what she’s always wanted to do. Unfortunately, after visiting the colleges on base, it turns out that no one offers an actual degree in Elementary Education. They all wanted her to get a degree in Psychology or something else instead. But that is not what she wants. Then she tried some schools online, but one of the big problems (unbelievable to me) is that for Elementary Education, most schools require a vetting processes that includes fingerprinting. For whatever crazy reason, they won’t accept fingerprints done on a military base – she has to get them done in the States. So rather discouraged, and un-happier, she gave up on the idea of college.

So she went to the HRO page on the Kadena Services website and applied for every job that mentioned Youth, figuring if she couldn’t work on her degree, she’d at least work with the same age group. She was quickly contacted by the Youth Center for an interview and when she found out they offered gymnastics (a sport she’d been involved with her whole life) she was convinced it was the job for her.

She began working there in August 07 and became the Class Coordinator in November 07. She enjoys being around the kids and watching as they play and improve their various skills.

This last summer, she went home for 6 weeks. Six whirlwind weeks. Weeks that made her miss Okinawa, for the first time. She planned her stepsister’s wedding shower, wedding and reception, planned her grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary, had a party for Caleb’s 2nd birthday, and drove from Texas to Alabama to Florida back to Alabama and Texas. It wasn't the most enjoyable visit. All the family wanted them to come see them. They felt pulled in all directions. It was not a vacation. She was amazed to realize that she was dying to get back to Japan and the life that they’d built here.

She thinks that vacation helped her see herself and Trip as THE family. She will be thrilled to be back in the States so that they can quickly get home if they want too, but she feels like she has grown up here. They have had to make their own traditions, establish their family here, thousands of miles from home. It’s been good for her and Trip because when problems arise, she can’t just call Grandma to fix it. They have to figure things out themselves. They are on their own.

Also, they really hadn’t lived together consistently until coming to Okinawa. She’s really gotten to know her husband here. And she likes him! She said that even a day with a fight is wonderful compared to a day he’s deployed. She likes him more in the midst of a fight than she ever realized was possible!

She also thinks it’s not going to matter where they are stationed next. She thinks if they’d previously gotten orders to New York she would have been terrified to be so far from home. But now, anyplace will feel close.

And so what’s next for Megan? Well, she met a woman at the Youth Center who is working on an Elementary Education degree online and so Megan started a program with Western Governors University in September. They took a lot of her MSU credit and she thinks she’ll be able to finish her degree just in time for them to PCS in May of 2010.

In the mean time, she thought she’d have another baby! She is due in May with a girl (well, she has decided it is going to be a girl – we’ll update you in a few weeks when she finds out if she’s right). This baby will be born without a waiting room and birthing room full of family, but I get the feeling that will somehow be ok.