Alpha Beginning

Countdown to Spence's homecoming: Only 2 more months until my husband, "Spence," comes home from Kuwait...

But who is counting! :-)

Hello to all in blogger land! This is so fun to be able to post my first blog, not that anyone will read it! We are an active-duty U.S. Air Force family, with my husband currently deployed "in the Fight" as a chaplain. It's truly a great ministry and a wonderful call to be able to support our soldiers abroad right now in the war, even though single parenting at home can be tough. My heart goes out to all you other AF and military moms -- especially as you single parent with your spouse away and in harm's way. This is our first deployment and it is been a CHALLENGE to be alone. I don't think I realized how much help my husband was until he wasn't around at ALL! Yet, God has definitely supplied and is supplying a huge amount of grace every day as I am "in the fight" on the homefront, battling two kids in diapers, homework, laundry, sleepless nights with sleepless babies and lots of special needs for our "special" son.

We have three children, Lauren, Sam and Thomas. Lauren is our almost 7-year-old -- vivacious, full of light, musical, gifted, artistic and talkative. Samuel is our special package. God delivered him to us almost four years ago, and Sam has Down syndrome. He is definitely a blessing, though many days he presents many, many challenges. I love Sam for his contagious laugh and yet Sam exasperates me in that it takes him 2,000 times to learn even the simplest of things. God is teaching me patience through Sam... Thomas (Tommy) is our just-turned-one year old who I am enjoying in this fun stage of exploring his world. He is an absolutely adorable baby with a precious newness that I cherish. Tommy refuses to sleep through the night consistently and wants to make sure that his "Air Force mama" remains just enough sleep deprived to remember she better rely more on "her God" for her strength than on "herself!"

I love my kids. They make me laugh and live so fully. Lauren turns 7 the day before Thanksgiving and today she asked me, "Mommy, what is that holiday that falls near my birthday.... You know, the one with the CHICKEN in it!"

Kids. Ya gotta love them for all their antics. Lauren is my wake up smile every day. She is such a ray of sunshine to our family.

The two boys are full of fun themselves. Yesterday I had a few minutes before I needed to leave to take Samuel to his special pre-school program so I ran into the bathroom to blow dry my hair. When I turned off the blow dryer I realized things sounded unusually quiet in the house -- Sam and Thomas were awake and had been in the living room playing with their toys. Since I didn't hear any toys being shuffled or activated, I ran out and didn't seen either baby boy in the room. As I called their names I could hear them in the next room -- the bathroom. Now, my daughter has these plastic green frogs that she won as a prize on Halloween at the "monstor mash" walk at a neighbor's party. As I walked into the bathroom I saw Sam with two of these green frogs in his hands while brother Thomas was "fishing" into the toilet, having thrown three more plastic frogs down the toilet. (As of late, Thomas has had a love affair with the toilets in the house and I am having to practically bolt the doors to keep him out.) As I approached the room, Tommy, with his hand in the toilet bowl looks up at me, shakes his head and says, "No, no, no", obviously repeating the words I had been telling him in regards to that nasty, but necessary porcelin object in our bathrooms. I couldn't help but laugh at the site of it all -- Tommy fishing for frogs and saying "no," while big brother Sam is on the hunt to find more plastic frogs to offer to his brother to throw down the toilet. See, Sam is smart! He just likes to fool me on some days! :-)

What a mischevious duo. I am afraid this is just the beginning of their shannigans!

On another wonderful sidenote: Can I just add what great friends I have and what a fantastic God I serve? Today I was feeling particularly "lonely," being that my husband is deployed and I have actually taken my children and moved to Florida to be near to my parents. While I was belly aching to God via my best college friends and asking for their prayer support, God surprsised me with THREE huge social invites for this week. One of these invites is from another AF mom whose husband is also deployed. Now this is a HUGE treat to be near to another spouse whose husband is also in the Fight. You typically only find this near a base or post. But, here I have someone near me in Naples. It was just a gentle reminder to me, yet again, that God is here, He loves me SO MUCH (and He loves you, too!) and he cares about my deepest needs for companionship and friendship.

As a bonus, my best Florida gal friend, Steph, is driving down from Bradenton tomorrow to spend the day with us! What a gift! Thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayers and being faithful in the little things, too. Steph is an amazing story of a woman living the daily life of caring for a family member with a disability as well... but anyway.... that is for another post. :-)