In this case I'll just say "So long"

Normally, I don't mind saying goodbye, but when it comes to Joel (my brother) leaving for Afghanistan I don't like the word. It seems scary for some reason. So I just wanted to say "So long" to my brave little brother. After 3 separate tours in Iraq over the past 6 years, he's now headed to Afghanistan. His first tour was hard. It was as the US was invading the first time and I daily wondered if we'd get a call that something bad had happened. It was such a relief when he came home safely. During his second tour I was a little more relaxed (just a little) since he had been through it before and had come home. But it turns out I shouldn't have been since that was probably the most dangerous tour. And I was spoiled by the last tour. We knew things were more calm in the country and that he was in a pretty peaceful area. So now it's back to the daily worry. And the daily prayers for him - not that I shouldn't be always praying for him daily. And the daily giving it over to God. It also makes for interesting discussions with the boys. Micaiah still doesn't have a good grasp of reality vs. pretend so he just thinks it's cool that he's a fighting soldier. We're trying to get him to understand reality better. And Orin goes the opposite way and asks talks about death and heaven. It's made for teachable moments for him as we not only pray for Joel and his men, but for the "other" soldiers as well as peace. Our biggest prayer is that God is glorified through the entire situation over there.

So we wait for November, when he will be home again.

Here are a few pictures of the last time we saw him in December.


The boys love Uncle Joel. He lived about 45 minutes from us in VA for two years so I think Orin especially bonded with him. Joel would come and babysit for us which was so nice. I wish we had gotten together more often.







We had all met at Cafe Du Monde for Beignets. Micaiah just liked licking all of the powdered sugar.