Follow Up

Almost two years ago, I wrote about my son Zach and his struggle in college.  At the time, I was so discouraged and sad about what was happening.  I saw it as a missed opportunity for him - a door closing with no hope in sight of a "worthwhile" one opening.

As usual, God had a plan that I could not see!

Since junior high, Zach had said he wanted to join the military.  At first it was the Air Force, both of his grandfathers had been officers in the Air Force and, because of his love of all things aviation, he dreamt of being an Air Force pilot.  That changed slightly when he joined JROTC - ARMY JROTC.  His First Sergeant "brainwashed" him - changing his loyalty to the Army and becoming a helicopter pilot. 

All along, we assumed he would graduate from High School, go to college on an ROTC scholarship and then join the Army as an OFFICER.  After all, this was his legacy.  But, as I said earlier, God had a different plan. 

Enlistment Day!

After Zach left college, he came home and began working part time at the mall.  After a few months, he began the to explore enlisting in the Army.  His plan (Zach is good at planning....) was to enlist as a helicopter mechanic and then apply to warrant officer training to become a helicopter pilot.  However, the Army had a different plan.  Helicopter mechanics are typically selected from reenlisting soldiers, not new enlistees so his plan wasn't coming to fruition.  After many months of waiting, avoiding, lying and stagnating - something snapped.  It might have had something to do with my ultimatum - enlist or move out!

As with Zach - once he decided to do it - he did it all the way.  Zach enlisted, signed up to ship out within a month and signed up to be in the Infantry!  

Now, he is a Private First Class in the US Army, stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia.  He is training to be a SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) gunner on a Fire Team.  That means he carries and shoots a large automatic gun (kind of like a machine gun) to cover his buddies as they "go in". His brigade may be deployed in 2013 which is fine with me because it is a long way off.

I am so proud of the man he has become, and I see once again that God has a plan for us - the perfect plan for us - and we often have no idea what it is!  Zach is happy and confident where he is - he is successful and able and that is all we should wish for our children.