Last week, HRH had the honour of being sworn into the Royal Canadian Naval Reserves at HMCS Donnacona. He has been working toward this for almost an entire year, and we are all very, very proud of him.

We couldn’t be there; the timing was awful for kids and bedtimes, but Jason, our friend in the RCAF, attended and took photos and video for us. (And this would have probably been impossible without Jason’s support throughout the process, so thank you, Jason!)

HRH went through a mind-numbing number of tests, evaluations, more tests, had paperwork returned because a letter I wasn’t dotted correctly, and made several trips to our family doctor for information, attestations, and referrals. He starts his training to be a Marine Engineering System Operator at the beginning of January. Parade night is on Thursday evenings, plus they put in one weekend day a month. So he’ll have mentally and physically stimulating time out of the house at least once a week, the way I do for music. He gets to study something he finds really interesting, and get paid to do it. As a part-time job to complement his full-time one… it’s pretty ideal. He gets to combine his desire to learn and study something new with his desire to pay down some debt, and it appeals deeply to his huge patriotic streak.

He has had nothing but support from his supervisors and the administration of the college he works at; they’re all enthusiastic about it, which makes life easier. During the recruitment process one of his supervisors was contacted for a phone interview, and he spoke to them at length about how great HRH was and what a good fit he’d be.

Next summer will be basic training, so plans for summer break are on hold at the moment until we know what the dates will be. We’ll roll with it!

Did we mention we are proud of him? We are. We’ve encouraged him every step of the way, and are looking forward to this new adventure in the family.