Friendship, Mission, Deployment....

This is post is going to be long, I am just warning you. I will try to break it up so all of my thoughts don't run together.

Friendship

Friendship has many meanings, and for each of us, we probably define friendship slightly different, but when I say friendship most people have an idea of what I mean. I am in awe of the friendship between these three men in the above picture. Kenny, Kelvin and Nate. For those of you that know them you know they come as a packaged deal. In constant communication, always checking in on each other, and for the most part they always know what is going on in each others lives. These 3 also served in Iraq together, about two years ago, and their bond just grew stronger. For the past couple of years our lives have continued, intertwined as we are always doing the same things (they all joined the army at the same time, we all got puppies at the same time, purchased houses around the same time, and went through a deployment at the same time.) Then the news came that would change these three, and I am amazed at how they are handling it. There has been rumors of a deployment for a long time, so we all slowly prepared for the day that we would get those orders.... but in this case Kenny was the only one that got orders this time. For the first time in a long time, these boys would be separated by thousands of miles, and let me tell you, they were not happy about it. Because of their friendship Kelvin and Nate did everything they could to be deployed with Kenny, they volunteered to go, they do not want their friend to be in the war zone alone. Now that to me is friendship. How many of us would volunteer to go to a war zone in order to defend a friend? Unfortunately, they wont let Nate and Kelvin deploy with Kenny, and that has been kind of tough on the 3 of them. But the outpouring of friendship these 3 have has really been a strength to me. What an example they have shown. And I know while Kenny is away, I will have at least two men that I can call anytime for anything.

Mission

Man this year and last year have been the year for missionaries in my family. We have had so many farewells and homecomings that I think my ward thinks I am inactive. What a great blessing missions are. We have been so blessed to have such great missionaries in our family, and this next one will be no exception. This is my cousin Karl. He will be leaving to serve his mission in Texas in the next few days. I know he will do great, and we will surely miss him. But he has been a great example to me of preparing for a mission when it is not always the easiest. He has trudged through as there have been many tries by Satan to hold him back. I cannot wait to see what an impact he will have on the people of Texas. We love you Karl and are so proud of the decision that you have made.

Deployment

And as I already said briefly, Yes we are preparing for deployment #2 in 2 and a half weeks. The road will not be easy, and yes those of you who went through it last time with me I will probably cry whenever I talk about it. Sending your husband to a war zone for a year is not the easiest thing let me tell you. Never knowing when you will hear from him, keeping your phone on you 24/7, it is not fun. Not to mention he will miss many milestones, our 3rd anniversary, Holidays and even my college graduation. But the Lord has a plan, and even though I may not understand why, or may not agree with it right now, we will grow from it, and something good will come out of this in the end. He never said it would be easy, but He did say it would be worth it, and He would never give us more than we can handle. So I am putting my faith in Him to get through this next year. We did it once before, I know we can do it again.