Let the new life begin...

The year apart, while my husband was splitting his time between his new, out-of-state office and FLETC, was challenging, but the show must go on, so I planned the entire wedding by myself. Luckily I had my friends and family nearby to accompany me on cake and catering tastings. We had to reschedule our wedding date because his academy dates were modified half way through his training. He finished the academy and drove home two days before our wedding. He looked so different; he was tan and had a new and improved body like I hadn't seen before. I'm not complaining, but he just looked so much different than he did when he left one year prior.

The wedding was amazing and we departed for our honeymoon the very next day. We were exhausted the first day, we were busy with beach festivities the second day, and by the third day, it really set-in that we had been apart for a whole year, living completely different lives. I had spent a year "playing" with my friends, working at a job I loved, and planning a very fun wedding. He had spent a year training and absorbing a new life which I was yet to understand or experience.

It was weird all of sudden. Not bad, but weird. Despite being on a beautiful island together, we were both eager to get home and finally start our new life together. One might think that we would have endless topics to discuss after being apart for so long, and yet we didn't. I knew I loved him, I knew he was the right man for me, and yet I didn't know what to talk with him about. I was certain that getting home and moving to our new home in our new state would be just the thing we needed to feel reconnected.... right????

Welcome to the agency!

After three years of applying, waiting, interviewing, waiting, taking a polygraph, waiting, joining a local police department and then waiting a little longer, my now husband finally got the letter in the mail telling him he was officially accepted as a criminal investigator (agent) for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It was such an exciting time for both of us. We didn't exactly know what this meant for our future, but we knew we had both spent many years in a state of limbo, hoping and waiting for this moment. Several weeks passed before we heard from the agency again. Once we did, we learned that my husband's first assignment would be six hours away, in a neighboring state, and he had two weeks until he was expected to arrive.

YIKES! We just got engaged several weeks prior to this news, and I was already knee-deep in wedding preparations. We had already picked a date and a venue for the following spring and had put down a deposit. Now, my fiancé was moving to a neighboring state, and would spend six of the next 12 months in Glenco, Ga. at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), better known as the ATF academy. Talk about an emotional roller coaster; one minute I was getting engaged (high moment), the next minute my husband got his agent job (higher moment), then he was being transferred out of town (low moment) and he was going to be gone for the next 12 months until we got married and I could move to be with him (crash and burn).

For better or worse, my story is not unique. Almost every agent’s wife I've spoken with can share a very similar story. Some have me beat, too. A lot of new agents have children, with more on the way. Regardless, the first assignment and FLETC training academy are a microcosm for the unique lifestyle which federal law enforcement families experience.