Jacob Christopher

Where to start with this child.  Well, first off he isn't a child any more!  He will be 20 years old in a month.  Yes, you read that right, 20 years old!

In November 2014 he came home from college and told Will and I that he wanted to quit college and was joining the army.  A couple weeks later on December 11, 2015 he enlisted into the United States Army.  

On December 31st he flew out to Fort Jackson, South Carolina to start 10 weeks of basic training.  It was a rough 10 weeks having no contact with him and not being able to check in and see how he was doing.

 

On March 12th be graduated from Basic Training.  The whole family drove down to watch this huge accomplishment. 

He then went directly to Fort Eustis, VA to start his AIT training.  He would be working on Apache helicopters.  His official title...15Y: AH-64D Armament/Electrical/Systems Repairer.

On May 22nd, 2015 he married Shelby in Virginia.  She lived out there off base until he graduated from AIT on August 26th.

In September we had a get together with friends and family to celebrate them being back home!

They were home for a couple weeks until Jake left again in September for his first duty station in South Korea.  This was a rough good bye!  We weren't sure how long it would be before we would see him again.  Shelby stayed behind, unable to go with him to Korea.

He was able to take some leave time the day after Christmas this year and flew the long plane ride back to Iowa!!  He got to spend 10 days at home.

While he was home he helped Shelby get settled into an apartment in Ankeny.  They also adopted a dog.  Meet our granddog...Gizmo!

He left again on January 9th, 2016 to finish his time in Korea.  He is set to come back in September of this year if everything goes as planned.  We are hoping sometime in April or so we will get to find out where his next duty station will be.  Crossing my fingers it's somewhere closer than South Korea!

As you can see it's been a whirlwind of events with our oldest child!  We love him more than anything and are so incredibly proud of the man he is becoming!