The Calling....

  Matt submitted his papers and just waited...and waited...and waited.  It was frustrating, especially if you are the one who's future is on hold.  In the end we found out about the delay. Turns out that the Stake was holding up the papers until the Stake President thought it was the right time to submit them.  This was absolutely the right move as Matt had the time to make some money over the summer and then still be back for the beginning of the school year (with some cash in hand) for the fall 2016.

From a mom and dad perspective, we had NO idea how much time we needed to get him ready to go.  Included in this was the amount of money it would take to get him ready.  It was good for us to have this delay as well.  Truth be told, him leaving in August was almost as if he was headed to school -- so I think it blunted the full brunt of the blow a bit (at least for me).