HALF WAY!!!

The beginning of February marks the half way point of this deployment! We have made it. When Darrick left in August, the year ahead of me seemed to stretch on for miles. I give all the glory to God for arriving at this point because there is no way I could do this in my own strength.

It has been a crazy six months. I had times that I laughed so hard my side ached and times I was face down on the floor crying and asking God to help me. The kids and I have traveled along the roller coaster of emotions from one extreme to the other. I am so proud of each one of them. I know what it is like to have my husband deployed but I have no idea what it is like to have my Daddy deployed. It is interesting to see how they handle the stress. Micah is emotional. When he misses Daddy he cries. Jacob and Naomi are fighters. When their feelings of missing Daddy get too big for them to handle they explode. They stomp, throw things, yell, they do physical things. And every time I am right there to pick up the pieces and love them through it.

I am so proud of Darrick. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be the one to leave for so long. As hard as it is for me, I would rather do my job any day. He deals with loneliness, missing special events, missing daily things, worrying about us and much more. He has a job to do and he needs to do it well.

So we are now on the downhill slope and heading to the finish line. We are no where near done but at least the end is in the distance.

I am so blessed to have amazing friends local and far away who support me however they can. And our family holds us up and keeps us strong during this time.

Last night at Bible Study on the video we watched Beth Moore said "after every death comes a harvest". That really struck me. God is always calling us to deny our self, pick up our cross and follow Him. I believe God uses times like these in our lives to clean the stuff out of our lives that does not need to be there and takes our focus off of Him. It is hard and painful to let those things die but God promises us that there will be a harvest in our lives.

I don't know why this year long deployment is happening to us but I have faith that God knows and He sees us down the road and knows how things will turn out and He is preparing our family for something He has planned ahead. What will it be? Only God knows right now but by going through this time I believe we will be prepared when we get there.