I’ve moved

I have decided to move over to a new site. Check out my blog at http://www.airmantomom.com

I would love for you to follow me there to see all my posts.

Thanks, Airman2mom

I’ve Moved

Check out my new site!
www.airmantomom.com

And subscribe to get all my latest posts!

Finding my footing

Moving is an adventure.

Moving is tough.

Moving is rough.

I feel like I have been on an emotional roller coaster the last few months. With the joy and sadness of selling our home to long days of driving across the country to finally beginning to feel like we have found our new home. It sure brings an array of emotion or maybe I’m just pregnant (just kidding).

I have learned through being in the military that you remember the good and forget the bad. I only remember the good stuff from Afghanistan and I didn’t really remember what it was like to be in a place where you have to redecorate and find a new everything.

A boy finding his footing in his new home

But I’m finding my rhythm.

I’m finding my steps.

And it feels like everything is starting to look up.

I have started working out again and found a grocery store that I enjoy shopping at. I have traveled out to explore amazing farmers markets, the beach and other local entertainment. This week has been a week of accomplishing new things and organizing a little bit more.

Soon all the pictures will find their home and the closets will be filled up with treasures. Piles of clutter will disappear. Knick-knacks no longer needed, will no longer sit in the corner. My neighbors will no longer be strangers, but instead welcoming friends. And this place I’m living won’t be a house, but finally a home.

So blessed am I to be living this life.

So blessed to be able to call this new place my home.

So excited about the future and the memories we will make

Tell #FMFriday

Tell me what you are thinking. No really what is deep down inside of you that you do not want anyone to know. Is it that you feel like you do not measure up? Is it that sometimes you wish you were someone else? What is it that you think about, but never share?

I have noticed that the things that we think we are alone in feeling are not things that we alone feel. You may think your problem is something no one else can understand, but it is likely a friend has gone through something similar. That is why blogging is so successful. We are all humans and all have emotions and life experiences and we can relate to each other more than we know.

So tell someone you trust that you are hurting. Tell someone you love that you need their friendship and love. You will receive open arms and love and hopeful more encouragement than you could fathom. ☺

Going Home

FOB Morales-Frazier

Since I am sitting at Manas without much to do I would write a quick note about going home and about the past few weeks where it seemed all we did was wait and wait until it was finally time to leave. Somehow our group of four found things to fill up our days to make our days left in Afghanistan disappear. And then the day finally came; it was time to start the journey home.

We had to go to one appointment after another until it was finally time to go through customs. Customs was a “through” search of everything in our bags. With four bags, plus a carry on this took a while. I had my chemical weapons gear, two weapons, three personal bags and one rucksack full of army gear. And we also had our body armor and helmet. I was unaware this was what was going to happen so I had carefully packed up my stuff making sure it all fit. Then it was ungraciously unpacked by a Sergeant and searched and then shoved back into a bag. Somehow it all fit.

Then we waited.

Next they came out and told us to put on all our gear and grab our weapons, it was time to go. We lined up headed out to the plane. When we were about 300 yards away from the plane and they told us they weren’t ready for us.

So we turned around walked back and waited for another hour or so to do the same thing.

Finally, we were on the plane, crammed in. Do you know what it like to sit on a plane with two weapons, your body armor and your personal bag all shoved into an airline seat?

Not fun or comfortable, but it was a short flight that I pretty much slept. I guess being exhausted has its benefits you can sleep anywhere in any position.

So we made it to Manas early in the morning half awake and sore from carrying all our stuff and sitting cramped on an airplane and got to sit through a number of important briefings about where we were to stay and how to turn in our army gear. Luckily, we retained all the important information and once the briefing was complete, threw our gear down at our temporary home and then went back to pick up our bags. The army gear went in one bin and the other bags were put into storage. Since we needed to stay awake for an appointment we decided it was time for breakfast. After breakfast we watched the World Series (game 2) we got to see innings 2-8 we thought we were going to see the whole game, but the 8th inning was never ending and we left when the score was 4-0. Go Giant!

We turned in our chemical weapons gear, army gear and weapons. We felt free we no longer had to worry about where our weapons were and every once in awhile I still feel like I am missing something.

After all our tasks for the day had been accomplished we had a snack and then went to bed. We slept till about dinner time and then went to eat and then went to the bar to hang out. Air Force members are allowed two drinks a day.

I don’t really like beer so I wasn’t too excited about this until I found out they had wine. So we hung out at the bar (Pete’s Place) and then they started doing karoke. It was fun to watch/listen to everyone and they sang.

I guess that is pretty much it. I am ready to go home and am tired of waiting for the next show time, but we are almost there. I will be home soon. Thanks for all the love and support. I can’t wait to see everyone soon.

Three Questions

During one of the last sermons I heard in Ohio, Pastor Greg challenged us to answer these three questions:

• What about your life before Christ?
• How did Christ change your life?
• What is He calling you to do right now?

At the time of the sermon we were “homeless” and moving onto our next adventure. I didn’t know what God wanted me to do right then except move with a positive attitude.   Now that we are getting settled in and ready for the next four years I think it is time to go back to these questions and reevaluate. I want to refocus so that I can make the most of the time we have here because before we know it, it will be time to move again.

The first two questions for me are hard to quantify. I was lucky enough to grow up in a Christian home and can remember asking God into my life at a summer program when I was in 1^st or 2^nd grade. Through out my growing up years I was able to rededicate my life as different stages came and went. I never strayed to far or ever did anything I seriously regretted. I’m not saying I didn’t make mistakes. I was just lucky to have His way leading me forward.

Now on to the tough question, what does God want me to do right now.

I want to find a church that we can call home. When we left Ohio we had met so many people and now we go to different churches and no one says hello. I know, no one. No one wants to get to know us. It makes me sad, not because no one talks to us, but because I know it happens to more than just us. How many people come to church lost and looking and are turned off by our cliques and ignorance. I don’t want to forget the way it feels to be new. I want to become bold and search out new people so that hurting people can find the peace.

I never really thought much about where I went to church. We would try a few places and if it seemed good we would go. The changed started in Alamogordo after joining as small group we grew deep friendships. And church was not something you did once a week. It was where you went to see friends and it felt like home away from home. And the church we found in Ohio continued to deepen our faith and helped us find our closest friends.

So, what does God want me to do? I think he wants me to trust Him. He will find us a church and a new place. He has taken care of us, by quickly finding us a house and making all the dates for the different travels to work out. So, I can’t stop trusting Him now. I want to find the church now, but can hear God urging me to be patient. It will take some time. I will trust Him.

I will look for His direction.

I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us.

From Ohio to California

It took a week to drive from Ohio to California and we finally made it. We drove through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and finally California.

Stopping in
Davenport, IA (small town along the Mississippi),

Omaha, NE (Faircreek friends live there)

Denver, CO (a friend from my Afghanistan deployment lives there)

Montrose, CO (my husband’s sister lives there)
Richfield,UT (there isn’t much except mountains in Southern Utah)
Las Vegas, NV (friends from college live there)
And finally LA!

Some of the highlights included dinner/breakfast with family and friends. We celebrated 4th of July with friends from our Faircreek family who now live in Omaha, Nebraska. Since fireworks that leave the ground have been illegal pretty much everywhere we lived, we were in for quite a show. On the drive home there were fire works shooting up all around us. It was a great way to celebrate the 4th, not to mention a great dinner.

We hit two national parks (Black Canyon (Colorado) and Zion (Utah)) and saw a lot of this beautiful country.

I have to say there isn’t much to see in Iowa and Nebraska along I70, but we did stop at one of the sites of the original Pony Express.

Colorado brought a change of flat lands to rolling hills that quickly turned into mountainous peaks. We tried to stick to 5 or so hours of driving each day. That was quite enough with a cat and baby in tow. It was such a great adventure, but glad that it is behind us and now we can begin again.

Now it is time to settle in and find a new everything and start all over again. Since we are still living out of suitcases and at a hotel it feels like the vacation isn’t over, but standing in the super market yesterday it hit me. This is our new home, this is our new adventure. I can’t wait to see what the next four years bring.

Fill – #FMFriday

I have been spending the last week with my family. It has been a nice break from the craziness of life. No unpacking to worry about. Just relaxing and spending time together as family. It has definitely been a nice break. Tomorrow we head back home. To a house full of boxes and piles of stuff. Soon our house will turn back into our home. Looking forward to the next adventure.

Fill me up with time with family…

Fill my days with scrumptious breakfast, lazy afternoons and late night chats.

Fill my days with hiking and biking and wading in the water. Throwing rocks, filling all the cracks with sand, and a dusting of sunshine. A wonderful week with family.

That is what family vacations are all about. They make time stop and speed up at the same time. Time so precious when we live so far apart. A time to reconnect and share our love. That is what this past week has been about. So I’m leaving full of love and ready for the next adventure we will share. No matter what happens and where we go, we will always be family.

Begin – #FMFriday

It is time to begin again.

I feel like a tree pulled out of the ground without its roots. Struggling to survive in this new place, but enjoying the view.

It is time to make new roots. And with each unpacked box we are closer to having a new home and a new life.

I didn’t realize how much I would miss all the things I left behind, but I have to look forward instead of back.

It is time to find new friends, new routines … a new everything.

Everything is different and yet somehow the same.

I’m ready for the new adventure to begin. There are so many things to be excited about.

 

Freedom

Oh to be free again.

 

Life is funny.

 

Often with each life situation you don’t realize the goodness of where you are until you are no longer there.  Before having a baby I had this dream about what it would be like to stay at home with my son.  It consisted of perfect days that required very little work from me.  He would have a schedule and life would be grand.

 

Oh how great life would be.

 

But being home with Luke each day is challenging and is not the paradise of ease I had planned on.  Before kids, you hear people talk about lack of sleep and crazy children and somehow your brain doesn’t comprehend what people are saying.

 

Maybe it is because you can’t understand how something people can be so excited about can be so hard.

 

Maybe you just have this picture in your mind that you can’t shake and the only way you can wake up to reality is to live it.  Then you can understand that even with how hard it is you can’t explain the joy and love the cute miracle you spend each day with.

 

And even though you are tired

 

And sometimes have a longing for when your life was simpler

 

Life was yours alone

 

You react with joy and excitement when you find out a friend is going to join in on the journey of motherhood

 

Because even though you miss sleeping all night long and throwing caution to the wind and living your life

 

Deep down you know your life is better, fuller, with this miracle that changed your life in more ways than you can imagine