Oh, the times they are a-changin'

While fall may have arrived on the calendar it has not quite fully made its appearance in our wardrobes, yet. Besides the seasons, things are changing on the homefront as well. Our once fiercely strong-willed boy who spent everyday in a costume of some form or another now spends his days in a school uniform and has taken to the likes of reading...small books with short words, mind you. But reading nonetheless! Our tiny and "easy" baby girl has become a tall 2 year old with a will that could rival the strength of tungsten metal. Diapers have given way to pull-ups and we are halfway to not needing even those anymore! It feels that babyhood has left this home all together. My point in saying all this is not to discuss whether we are going to have more babies, but to say that our family has changed and moved into a different season. I'm sure we've done it a dozen times before, but this one seems more tangible, more defined than previous times. Sometimes in the sleep deprived craze of having a small baby, I lost sight of our family ever moving past that. I am reminded once again that families DO! And what a joy to watch as my children grow and unfold like a flower opening its blossom upward toward the heavens, revealing their full potential given them by the great Creator.

*Update: since first typing out this post, we have gone back to square one in the pull-up department.  Que sera, sera!!

Our street gang...quite a cute sight, right?!

We treated 'til we trunked!

Tonight was the 319th MI BN's annual Trunk or Treat festival.  Our kids had a great time dressing up as the likes of Davy Crockett and a fairy princess.  More candy was collected than should be humanly possible.  Now to try and ration it out on a daily-dose basis!

 Breakin' into the stash already!

 Davy in the driver's seat of a firetruck

Sweet, precious princess feet

Life in the fast lane

Two months since my last blog. Sheesh. Kinda pathetic. I think, though, that it's a testament to the break-neck speed our lives have come to reflect since Daddy's return. The first month is a fog, honestly. I don't remember much except wanting to spend every moment with him and the kids. And waking up to the sheer joy of lying next to him in bed. After a couple weeks of reintegration, we ventured to the beach with the kids. It was fast and furious, but the kids had a blast.
As soon as we returned from our sandy vacay, Big D started the Big K! The Lord provided the funds for us to send him to a Christian school and each day he learns not only from his books but from the Bible as well. I cannot tell you how deeply this blesses our hearts. A school that backs up what we teach at home -- what a delight!! It has been such a blessing to see him thriving this early in his education.

Once we were sure things were going well in the Big K (and by that I mean that we, the parents, were going to be okay with our little baby in school :), Hubby and I took off for a more extended vacay ourselves. In case anyone military is reading this, if you don't know already Camp LeJune (in North Carolina) has FABULOUS beach front accommodations that can be reserved and rented through their MWR. For cheap!! We spent a few nights there and then spent a night in Wilmington as well. We intended to stay longer, but, as my husband so tongue-in-cheekly likes to put it, "another woman came between us". Yep, Hurricane Irene thwarted our plans for our last night's stay. So we headed home early to wait out the big storm. Which, for the record, was more like a good rain soaking and wind blowing as far inland as we live. Thank the Lord for his protection.
September and its slightly cooler temperatures brought with it a new routine for our family. One that begins early with a predawn rise for PT for our resident Chaplain. I am up not too long after him to get that sleepy-eyed boy up and at'em for school. Our sweet angel girl suffers the most from this new routine, being woken up some mornings long before her internal clock tells her to rise. Depending on the day of the week, I spend anywhere from 45 min to 1 hr 15 min in the car by 9am. Jordan attends a local Christian preschool three mornings a week and it is on those days that I run errands, clean house, and attempt to improve my time on the 5K. The days seem to go by so fast with afternoon pick-up and dinner preparation. I live and die by the clock. Time dictates everything to me. Not that this is a bad thing, just another adjustment in life. A new season. No complaints here. Our family is moving, and changing, and maturing -- together, as it should.

Tim and I attended his Brigade's ball mid-September. It was a celebratory ball to highlight the end of their year-long deployment. I always enjoy these events as they afford me the opportunity to feel like I'm attending the prom I never went to. Tim picked out and bought for me a BEAUTIFUL dress, which I affectionately named my mermaid dress (because of the color. We had a wonderful evening!

We also had the opportunity to travel with Tim to Arkansas in late September to visit our endorsing church and see our church family. We took a plane ride there, which was fun and interesting. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with friends and were so blessed by their generosity.

Historic Cotham's Mercantile in Scott, AR

Another one of my biggest blessings and yet biggest challenges as of late has been the ladies Bible study that I am co-teaching with my dear Army wife friend Rachel at our local PWOC. God has stretched me, pushed me, pulled me, and grown me through this experience. The preparation is hard work; it makes me dig deep into the Scriptures -- deeper than I would otherwise probably do for a typical quiet time. A good thing. God has also blessed us with a WONDERFUL class of women hungry for his word, passionate about Godly children, and eager to learn. This experience has been one that I will never forget and I look forward to how God will continue to work in the lives of these gals throughout this semester!

Recently we enjoyed an outing with our maternal grandparents to the pumpkin patch. I look SO forward to this time each year with our kids. There's something about the bright orange pumpkins that make such GORGEOUS pictures! Here's a few to enjoy:I loathe BIG "download" posts where weeks and months get lumped into one post. So, thank you for bearing with me through this one. I long to be more intentional about blogging and share our lives in smaller chunks with you. I also long to share more of what God is showing me on a heart level. He's always working, you know! And as an uncle once encouraged me, I want to keep blogging because "one day it will be my family's history."

He's baaaaa-aaaack!

There's a sound coming from down the hallway in our home. I hear it and it makes me smile...again. It is the noisy "clunk-clunk" sound of ACU's spinnng in my dryer. That sound can only mean one thing: My soldier is home!!! This is a fact that we began celebrating 2 weeks ago tonight. Getting our soldier back was quite the late night adventure.

His unit's plane couldn't land at the Army airfield here on post so they were forced to make a landing at the nearest international airport and ride a shuttle for the remainder of the trip to our post. His arrival time was sent to us via Army text message and we were told to be there by 2:45am. I hemmed and hawed and went back and forth about "should I bring the kids?" or "should I go by myself since it's during the night?" Finally I decided upon bringing the oldest and leaving the youngest to sleep while a neighbor stayed at our house. So, after a few hours rest I gathered up my young lad and off we went to pick up our hero, along with my sweet friend and trusted photographer Elizabeth! Even though we didn't have a Green Ramp experience, it was still quite a momentous occasion. It was the black of night but the heat index didn't know the difference. We were all sweating within a few minutes of arrival. Approximately 350 people gathered under the stars to await their loved ones. Once the charter buses pulled in, screaming commenced. They filed in, marching in formation to Queen's "We will rock you". The elements of the 525th BFSB took the brigade field and awaited their release from the General in attendance. Almost needless to say, we were ecstatic to have our "daddy hero" back. We rushed towards him once the formalities were over and Dylan jumped into his arms. He got the first hug but I got the first kiss. As it should be.

Oh, and baby girl got her own VIP pass to see Daddy the next morning. He snuck into her room and she did NOT know what to think. She has quickly warmed up to his smile and his lap!

Tim was given a 48 hour pass and since then has been reporting to work for half days. His first week home was spent relaxing and reintegrating. Our second week was spent having extended family in our home and hosting a double-party..."Welcome Home!" and "Happy Birthday, Jordan!". Block leave (30 days of paid leave-time) starts this Thursday and we are looking forward to some solid family time and vacation. Thank you, God, for answering SO many prayers with these 2 pictures!

And in conclusion…

A year has passed. I cannot fathom how a year has gone by so quickly and yet there have been times where it seemed like "a day was as a thousand years." I can remember this time last year wondering to myself if there was a doctor out there who could just put me in a coma for a year and wake me when this was all over. What a mistake that would have been…to have missed out on all that God had for me and would do to and through me. To have missed out on the good AND the bad. In my heart and my mind I have been trying to say "goodbye" to this season in my life; to boil it down to a few nuggets I can take away and share with others. It is hard to simplify such an arduous process. Spend any time around Army wives and you will quickly learn that they define themselves and their families in terms of deployments. This is a byproduct of war that I am still not sure that I'm okay with. I am a firm believer that it's not what life throws at you but what you make of it that really counts. So to define myself in terms of whether my husband is home or gone seems like I am letting life's punches call the shots instead of taking my life by the horns, no matter my husband's current continent.

There have been many moments that I thought I was teetering near the brink of insanity. Usually this was due to something my beautiful and precious childrens were bringing to the equation at the time. For those who have read my previous posts, I'll not take you to that crazy place again. Suffice it to say that God undoubtedly knew that was a path I needed to go down in order to better sharpen and hone certain facets of my character. What I feel now is stronger. Stronger physically, stronger mentally, stronger emotionally. Running and yoga have been my "outlets" this past year. They allowed me to free my mind and free my body as well. As Eric Little said, I definitely felt the Lord's pleasure as I pounded out many a mile while listening to worship music or rattling off my thoughts to Him. Mentally I am stronger because I have been under constant stress and pressure and have had no choice but to deal with it. There was no "out", no other adult in the house with me. It was up to me and God to work it out and see it through. Problems that would have once made me throw my hands up and walk away required that I stay and deal with them. I was remarking on this recently as I found myself easily finagling a series of events that at the beginning of this deployment would have tripped me up and ruined my attitude for the day.

I mentioned an emotional strengthening as well. When it came to emotions, my husband was that rock solid wall that I could run to with any emotion I was feeling and could spatter it out against his strength knowing he could take it and it would not topple him. In his absence, I have had to turn more often to the Lord first rather than him (I usually found myself at His throne eventually but sometimes my first place to go was hubby). I have also had to work through some tough emotions on my own without his listening ear and guidance. I wish that I could say that I burdened my husband very little with the cares and worries of home while he was away, but I fear they were brought to his attention more times than I would probably care to remember. He lovingly told me each time that he didn't mind listening to me and cared about each concern I was having. He would even venture to offer wisdom and suggestions. But it was up to me to do the hard task of steadying myself and wading through the emotional waters I encountered. I am proud of the job I have done this year. Not proud in an idolatrous way. It's more that I am satisfied with the job I have done this year. I know the time is soon coming when I will be able to take a deep breath, "rest", and look back on this and be pleased.

My husband and I joke with each other that things were going well in our marriage until we separated for a year. In all seriousness, another conclusion I (we) have come to is the irony that our marriage has never grown so much in the past 11 years as it did this year we were apart. It forced us to grow, to adapt, to look for new ways of keeping our love alive. To focus on the things we love and miss about each other. We were deprived of the physical pleasures of marriage which made us seek to speak the other's love language even more. My husband loved on me diligently with "words of affirmation", which I deeply crave. My challenge was to find different ways to love him through physical touch (his #1 love language) which I did through care packages and "touching" him each day through e-mail communication. The #2 love language for both of us is quality time, so a phone call every day met both of our needs. We have now put down roots on different and deeper levels and I look forward to seeing the health and life that will bring to our relationship once we are back under the same roof.

I recently read an article on "Independence in Marriage". The gist of it was that a woman can be strong and independent and still submit in a godly way to her husband. The article's title got me thinking on the independence in our marriage. What the Army has taken our marriage through is a messed-up myriad of weirdness. Two people, deeply in love, forced to live apart, living independent lives full of difficult choices they must bear, yet at their very core they are inseparable by a covenant made before God and man. Good thing that our God is sovereign, hmmm?

Summertime Blueberries

I took the kids blueberry picking today (with another friend and her 3 girls) and these pictures are the result. Gardening and fruit picking has become my new favorite kid activity. Abundance of vegetation to be picked, little hands busy doing work, learning about God and his delicious creation, snacking while we work, no mess to clean up – a perfect activity! Dylan is being allowed to dress himself in the summertime (thank goodness for uniforms in the fall!) which is why he is STILL wearing his VBS shirt…from a month ago. Oh, and we scored 5.75 pounds of blueberry goodness…a $5 feast!!

The story we heard was that Cindy, the lady who runs the blueberry farm, bought the house and property many years back not knowing that the gnarly rows of trees near the back of the property were perennial blueberries! She nearly had them cut down! So glad she didn't.

One of our dear friends Willa.

Found a lone grape vine. A neat sight for the kids. We talked about the vine that grew up over Jonah's head in the last chapter of his book. I know it was most likely a gourd vine, but it's the closest thing the kids had ever seen to a vine that could provide shade.

Our blue-tiful harvest!

Happy Independence Day!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. -- The Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776

The 4th of July was our last holiday spent apart for this deployment. How fitting that the celebration of our nation's independence would be our final holiday before our soldier's return! We did the day up right, starting with an 8am streetwide 5K run/walk race. We had a fairly good turnout considering much of the street was out of town. I have mentioned this before but life on a military installation is unlike anything that can be found in the civilian world. Even without knowing the new person who just moved in across from you there will be several things you will have in common with them from the get-go: a deep love for Country, a willing heart to serve, similar rank...and probably kids! :-) Living on-post allows you to cut through the first 6 months of typical relationships and cut right to the meat of what matters. Besides, your neighbors could be PCS'ing before 6 months are over with! It was really nice to spend some great time with our neighbors, new and old alike, and exercise our bodies at the same time.

Shannon, Meghan, and Jenn...deployed spouses triple threat on the 5K!

Dylan and Miles. Yes, they're in their PJ's :-)

Our street kids. Too precious!

In the afternoon we continued our streetwide 4th of July celebration with a BBQ and games and contests for the kids. We had a watermelon seed spitting contest, a 50 stars search, and a water balloon toss contest. The kids had a blast! Each family brought their own meats and a few generous soldiers manned the grills for us. We had a slip-n-slide, a kiddie pool, and prizes too. It was a great event and we had about 16 or so families join us. Dylan and I stayed up to watch the post-wide fireworks display with some neighborhood friends. While we were waiting we lit off a few of our own. Of course Dylan and his buddy Miles were dazzled by the fireworks, regardless of whether they were our glorified bottle rockets or the thousand dollar display. Fire, gun powder, explosions, brightly colored lights? I mean, come on, a little boy's dream, right?

Miles and Dylan

Thank you, God, for this great land which affords us so many freedoms. May we NEVER forget the blood that has been shed to make it possible. May we NEVER take for granted the spirit of liberty that birthed this nation. And may we NEVER waver from our committment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

(All images except the firework picture courtesy of my friend Shannon! :-)