Deployment - Month Two

Whew, two months down! I will be honest, this month was tougher than the first for a few reasons; between Chris and I we have 6 family birthdays and an anniversary all within about a week of each other in December. That is a lot of events to be minus one. Then, you throw in Christmas and wowza…it only makes sense that it was tough.

I missed Chris in all the ways you would expect, in wrapping Brody’s birthday gift, helping him celebrate turning 4, cutting down our family Christmas tree, getting all of the decorations up, Christmas Eve, Christmas morning and all of the other little memories in between.

I definitely miss having an extra set of hands around the house and a co-parent by my side, but mostly I miss him in the every day. I miss sharing life with him because that is something he and I do really well. I wrote Chris an email today just to catch up and it was four pages long. How do you summarize all these little moments over the course of a week and many thousands of miles that you normally share in the passing of each day? My day-to-day looks so dramatically different from Chris’ that I wouldn’t even know the questions to ask him about his time there. So, I fill him in on life here, knowing that is what he needs to hear most anyway.

I have been able to talk to Chris a few times over the past few weeks, but they are short phone calls most of them lasting only a few minutes. It is so good to hear his voice, but it always leaves me wanting more talk time with him. I think it will be a strange adjustment when he comes home to have conversation around me all the time again. I wonder if I will be so used to the quiet once the boys are in bed that I will have to adjust to the noise of talking or if it will be so welcomed that I will just soak it all in.

This wasn’t a month of only bummers, however, and the boys and I had lots of fun along the way. I am finding ways to create memories for us here that are fun and distracting at the same time. Here’s a few of the highlights…

Getting our Christmas tree with Grandma!



Hot Cocoa after tree hunting with friends!




Polar Express train ride for Brody's birthday




Birthday privilege - licking frosting off the candles!



Christmas Eve at Grandma's house



Mickey's House (AKA: Disneyland) with SoCal family!




Beach Time!




Christmas at Grammy & Grandpa's in Cali!



So, now here we are in a new year…the same year that Chris will come home! That is a comforting thought and a positive note to end this second month of deployment on. I can say “My hubby comes home THIS year!” It’s all about finding those little silver linings. And, I continue to be grateful that I belong to a God that is solid and steady and cares for us with an overwhelming love!

Prayer requests for us this month:

• Pray for our hearts to stay strongly connected in this time apart. As hard as missing Chris is, I would never want to stop missing him because it reveals the depth of our connection to one another.
• Pray for Brody; he is processing and processing and processing all of this in his little world. I have just recently seen deployment come out in his imaginary play that a lot of his toys now have daddies that are at army work too. I appreciate this because it allows me to speak into those situations encouraging his ‘friends’ how to connect with their daddies and reassuring him that all these daddies will come home. He LOVES his daddy pillow (a pillow with daddy's picture on it to snuggle!) and I think it will be a fixture for him over the next year. Pray for Brody’s soft heart, that it would stay soft and yet not break. Pray that God will fill in the gaps for him as his heavenly Father.
• Pray for Caleb. He’s a trooper, but I can still see the ways he is missing his daddy. Pray for him to remain connected to Chris even though far away.
• Pray for Chris – pray for energy and clarity of purpose. Pray for his success and for solid relationships with his team. Pray that he would lean on God for every single thing he needs. Pray protection over his heart as a husband, a son, a friend, a daddy. Pray against discouragement and discontent.
• Pray for me – my prayer begins the same as for Chris, pray for energy and clarity of purpose. Pray for wisdom as I lead our boys through this season. Pray peace and protection over our home and peace over my heart.

Thank you all for the ways you are supporting our family; through prayer which is the most powerful weapon we have in this season, through care packages to Chris, meals and girl nights and babysitting for me. We love you all!