A Special Trip to Annapolis

We made a special trip to Annapolis, Maryland to spend a few extra days with our first baby boy before we left him at the U.S. Naval Academy to complete his summer training before beginning his first year.  We enjoyed spending those few days with him playing in the pool at our hotel and hanging out in downtown Annapolis.  

 

18 years just goes by way too fast! 

I do miss that sweet little baby boy, but I am so proud of this amazing young man!  He loves God and his family more than anything so I know he will always come back home. 

He's officially a Navy man now! They will turn our baby plebes into full grown Naval men by the end of the summer. It seems like yesterday he was my cute little one year wearing his white sailor suit. I kind of have a special knack for foretelling my kids' future so I guess this was bound to happen. Mommy held it together, but it is going to be a long couple of months until I see him again. 

He seemed so confident and ready getting dropped off that morning. 

Daddy saying a short goodbye to his handsome firstborn. 

While Evan was going through all the initiation routines of a new plebe, families were enjoying a very hot picnic and learning what to expect the first year.  

Miss Maggie enjoyed sitting in the air conditioned arena and listening to some special speakers talk about the Naval Academy experience. 

Miss Maggie also met the mascot.  They had previously met the mascot on one of our earlier visits. 

Our precious boy was getting his head shaved, getting his new white attire, and taking his oath to serve. 

He marched by on his way to take the oath.  Daddy went to watch the ceremony while the kids and I stayed in the shade. 

One last teary goodbye.  

How did I know all those years ago when I dressed him in his white sailor suit for his infant dedication service that he would one day don a real white sailor suit?  Foreshadowing? 

We love you, beautiful boy! 

He has always been Daddy's little man. 

So many memories shared between these two. 

Miss Maggie and her brothers did not like seeing their big brother without his gorgeous red hair. 

Mommy's baby forever!

A special fly over for their initiation ceremony. 

We started getting a few peeks of Evan from the photographers that are hired to photograph the plebes doing various events. 

They never look very happy as most of the experience is meant to be very difficult. 

One of the only parts Evan actually enjoyed was running since he excels in that area.  He had quickly risen to be in the second fastest group after the plebes that had been recruited to run for Track or Cross Country.  Evan probably could have moved into that role if he had wanted, but I think he preferred to just run as an intramural sport and mostly concentrate on his academics. 

Very thankful for this group of supportive parents who got together to pack special care packages for all of our boys to make their experience a little easier.  

Sadly, we found out at this meet up that Evan had suffered a concussion and was still on concussion protocol.  We could not get more answers than that for weeks because plebes are not allowed to call home, and we were not receiving Evan's letters.  The mail was a major issue because these plebes and their families depend on regular letters to help get them through this tough experience.  It is like boot camp for the Naval Academy.  After weeks of no news, we finally got some old letters that still didn't tell us what was happening.  What started out as a journey with so much hope and promise had taken the turn of a nightmare.  After only a few days of plebe summer, our son was inflicted with his first concussion.  We could not understand how this could have happened to our perfectly healthy and athletic son.  We went weeks with no mail or calls because the academy was obviously having mail delivery issues.  We sent packages and letters to him, and he was sending us long letters about his circumstances, and we were not getting them.  We got a chaplain to check on him, but all he could tell us was he was alive and on concussion protocol.  Finally, last week we got a call while at dinner.  We knew something was up if Evan was calling us as calls are strictly prohibited.  He had suffered a second concussion.  We needed the full story of how two concussions happened.  The first was at the hands of his student detailers acting as "drill sergeants" inflicting "punishment" planks in their dorms on hard tile floors and making the kids jump up to attention quickly after being in the plank position for long periods and sweating onto those slick floors.  So Evan jumped up, slipped on the slick hard surface and fell on his face hard.  When we had talked to him a few days after that incident, he didn't think he had a real concussion and expected to be back in service that week.  A couple weeks had went by with Evan continuing to get bad headaches and dizziness when he attempted to join his company.  Then, he had a blackout incident in his dorm room and was taken to the ER where a CT scan was performed.  While the CT didn't show anything (it usually won't show concussions), the ER doctor advised an MRI and that Evan had likely been rushed back from recovery weeks too soon.  He was sent back to recover in his quarters while awaiting an MRI and neurological follow up at Walter Reed which was supposed to happen on June 25th.  His drivers took him to Walter Reed, but they did not take a military ID for him (plebes h ad not been issued these yet) so he could not even get in to the base or hospital.  They drove him back and were trying to tell Evan he didn't really need the MRI anyway (non-medical students telling an injured cadet that he doesn't need medical attention that was prescribed by an actual physican?).  They had been trying to "force" Evan to just voluntarily leave this whole time giving up any rights he has to treatment or finding out if permanent damage had been done.  He would lose this whole year of school and possibly never be able to return if not medically cleared.  Our son is of higher intelligence than most recruits, and his brain in his greatest asset.  We are worried about what this may mean for his future and upset at the treatment given to kids like him at the academy.  There were many instances of concussions this year alone from stupid things like hitting their heads on their bunks when yelled at by detailers to jump up quickly.  Last night, Evan called us and told us about the Walter Reed debacle and then stated that he passed out in his room after getting back from that trip.  Luckily, his roommate had found him.  They would not have done anything about that if we had not insisted he be taken back to the ER.  Our nightmare was that he would pass out in his sleep and not survive the night.  He spent the night at the hospital last night and expects to be taken back to Walter Reed for an MRI at some point.  We prayed that he was kept safe and got the medical care he needed and that this would not have a detrimental impact on his future.