Seven Years Ago...[NTS]

Not long ago (5 February 2010) my son Ezekiel turned seven (7) years old. Yes he was born premature and, as you can see, he has come quite a long way.

He spent nearly three months in Kapiolani Medical Center's neonatal intensive care ward. During this time, my boat was in Pearl Harbor shipyard, so I was working some pretty crazy hours. From 7:30am (6:30 on duty days which were every three days) to no earlier than 6pm (18:00 for you military types).

Well, without a car during this time, living almost two hours away from the hospital and over an hour away from work, this was a very challenging time... But someone was almost always with him day and night.

His mother, after taking his sister to school would bus it to the hospital in the morning to stay until about 7pm when she HAD to go and pick up Joycelyn. Sometimes we'd see each other... Sometimes we wouldn't. Some nights I would get to the hospital between 7 & 8pm and stay the night... Other nights I would take the last bus home at 1am... arriving at 3am to shower, take a quick nap and head right back to work. After an altercation on the boat, the CO gave the order to release me at 5pm daily (except duty days) to alleviate some of the stress.

The weekends, when I wasn't on duty weren't as bad. I simply didn't go home.

When he finally did come home, there were no issues. In fact, he grew rather quickly. But it was during that trying time that I learned some serious lessons.

It was also during that time when I decided I was leaving the Navy.
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