Aloha!

Hello everyone!  

We are still here and loving life. We made it through our first deployment and Darrell got to come home early which was awesome.  Reintegration was super easy for us. He slipped right back in like he had never left.  A few months after his return from Iraq we got the news that we had orders for..........HAWAII.  We arrived here in June and love it. I seriously believe my husband and kids should have been born Hawaiian.  

One of the big changes that the move to Hawaii brought to our family is that we decided to begin homeschooling as the public schools in Hawaii leave a lot to be desired and sending three kids to private school here was very cost prohibitive.  We have been at it for 5 months now and so far are really enjoying it. Darrell is gearing up for another deployment and the flexibility has been great.  Our rule is that if Daddy is off we are. It is allowing to spend a lot of time with him before he leaves.  

We are feeling truly blessed as we God had put amazing people in our path here and we made incredible friends right off the plane.  We can't wait to see what the next 2 1/2 years hold for us here.

100 Days!!!!

Good morning all!!  Yesterday marked the 100th day of our very first deployment. Some of the things I have learned so far are 1) My kids can survive off of chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and noodles, 2) I miss even the super annoying things that my husband does, 3)  I am a much stronger person than I thought, and 4) My faith can get me through this one day at a time.  My theme song for this deployment has become Matthew West's song "Strong Enough".

Military BibleStick Outreach

This is such an incredible ministry that I wanted to share it. If you are looking for a way to donate money to help our soldiers this would be a great place to start.

Military BibleStick Outreach

Good Morning!

Hello everyone! It is a beautiful day here in central Texas. I can ALMOST feel fall in the air. I am really homesick right now for Kentucky in the fall. It is just not the same here. I miss all the local pumpkin patches and our yearly trip to Huber's for all that great home cooked food. However, I am sure that in the winter I will be rejoicing in the lack of snow and single digit days.

Caleb is almost done with football this season. His team is a very young team and because of that have struggled to even score against the much larger and more experienced teams we have faced. I am ready for football to be over. It is like a a religion here in Texas. I thought Kentuckians were crazy when it came to basketball but Texas and football could give them a run for their money. Win or Lose though Caleb always has a grin on his face and just loves to play. I couldn't ask for more. Zoey and Eli have taken a couple of months off from activities but they are getting ready to start swim again and Zoey is getting ready to begin her guitar lessons. They are super excited.

On the Chaplain front things have been very busy here. Ft. Hood has been plagued by a series of suicides and my heart breaks for the communities and families and they deal with these tragic losses. Darrell is, as I type, teaching yet another suicide prevention class. However, until the soldiers are willing to reach out and ask for help it is going to be really hard to treat the problems. The help is there in many different forms so if you know a soldier or soldiers family who is struggling please help them to contact their Chaplain or Chain of Command so we do not have even more devastated families.

I pray for a blessed day for any and all who come my way and that God will give me a spirit of joy and compassion in all my interactions today.

Back in the Saddle

Well, we have now been an Active Duty Chaplain family for 6 months and so far it has been quite an experience. Darrell is in his element but the amount of pressure he is under can, at times, be unbelievable. I think that the Chaplain Corps is one of the most under appreciated facets of our military right now. They work incredibly hard at a very emotionally draining job and yet are seen as weak because they do not enter physical combat. Trust me when I say that our military Chaplains battle daily with forces we cannot see or understand whether it is religious, physical, or mental. They have to be able to treat all soldiers diplomatically even when that soldier wants to do nothing to help themselves. They also are on constant call and have a hard time even making definite plans with their family because they never know when a crisis is going to come up. They are a pastor and counselor along with being a Soldier. Darrell is the low man on the totem pole in a small Battalion but still has over 400 soldiers whose mental/emotion well being he is responsible for. I pray daily for all our Chaplains that God will give them the strength they need to deal with the constant emotional upheaval and for their families who deal with it second hand.

Finally.....We have orders!!!

We have officially received orders and will be heading to Ft. Hood, Texas the first part of February. We are very excited to be moving into the next stage but very sad to be moving away from all our friends and family here in Kentucky. So far I have been extremely busy looking for a house and checking out schools online and basically trying to get all our HHG organized before the movers come. Some sites that have been great for us is www.ahrn.com and many of the sites linked from the Ft. Hood site. The Killeen newspaper www.kdh.com has helped too. Hopefully this move will go smoothly and the kids will transition seamlessly into their new schools.

Finally!!

We are finally approved for active duty and have tentative (word of mouth) orders to report to Ft. Hood in January. I can already see such a huge change in my husbands outlook as he knows he is finally, after 6 long years, going to be doing what he feels called to do. He can't wait to report and really start working on the mission field that he has a true passion for. It is going to be a huge adjustment for us but I know without a doubt that God is in control of all things and will bless our family if we are obedient to his call.