Don’t sweat the small stuff…God already is

 

This past Saturday night, just before Bug went to bed, I was rocking her in the rocking chair.  I feel so incredibly blessed that she still lets me do this from time to time, even at 5 (and a half!).  

Suddenly, she burst into tears!  She said “I don’t want to grow up.  I want to stay a kid forever.”  I assured her that she had tons of time to enjoy being a kid, and when it was time for her to be a grownup, she would WANT to be a grownup!  She was worried about outgrowing her bunk bed (a twin!), so I told her about how I slept on a bed that size until I was a much older grownup and it fit just fine.

Then the conversation got around to us moving (ahhh! the real worry!).  We know that about a year from now our family will be moving.  We don’t know where yet.  Most of the time, Emily is super excited about it.  God blessed her with an amazing sense of adventure and curiosity.  She wants to visit more countries and states than I think I even knew existed at her age.

However, this time, she was bawling.  She was scared and worried about the move.  I held her close and told her she could ask me anything.  That Daddy and I had both moved many, many times in our life, so we could tell her all about it.   She’s moved before, but she was too young to remember it.  Now, she’s starting to process the concept of moving, and trying to figure it all out.  See, she’s a detail person and a planner.  That’s who she is.  So, rather than focusing on the adventure of it, right now she was focused on the little details.

What was she worried about? Well, here were a couple of her questions.

* What if my new bedroom doesn’t have a window?  I assured her that her bedroom, would in fact, have a window!  She loves to look out her bedroom window!

* What if we are driving to our new home and we have to stop, but we can’t sleep in the van….where will we sleep?  Obviously she had forgotten the many times we’ve slept in a hotel room on the way to a destination!  I reminded her of the hotel stops when we went to Florida this past year, and that settled her mind.

 

Last time she did this, she was concerned because she “would never get to go to the zoo again!”, but was fine once I showed her that there are zoos in or near most cities, and that she would definitely get to go to the zoo again!

She was also curious about having a yard to play in, and since I don’t know if we’ll be in a house or apartment at first, I couldn’t promise that.  But once I told her that apartments have swimming pools, she said she wanted us to live there!

Our sweet girl is not a big fan of change.  She likes to plan ahead and know what’s going to happen….exactly how it’s going to happen.  So this first move will be challenging for us.  We’ll have to give her lots of details, without giving her ones she doesn’t need to know at her age.

 

As she was worrying about whether or not her bedroom would have a window, I was reminded of Christ in Matthew 6:25-39.  He tells us not to worry because he will take care of us, even more than he does the birds and the flowers.  He’s already in the details.  He sees the big picture, when we only see what’s right in front of us.

Just the same, I can worry about where we are going to be stationed, what our house will look like, if it will have a microwave built in, whether I’ll have a bathtub or just a shower…..Or I can just relax, take it as it comes, and trust that God has it all planned out for us.

 

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7)

We’ve joined the Army!

The roller coaster ride has begun!

Hubby signed the papers yesterday to re-enlist in the Army! For the past 6 months he has been getting back in shape to join the Army, and now it’s time.  His MOS (job) will be 74D - Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Specialist.  Get ready to read lots of acronyms as I learn a whole new language!

A little background for anyone just jumping on the ride with us:

Hubby served in the Army for 7 years…and has been out for 13 years.   After he got out, he spent some time as a SCUBA instructor in the islands, then came back home to Texas to continue teaching at a shop here, where we met.  Later, he got into the IT field working with computers for the next several years with a small break while he worked as a manager for Starbucks.  During that time, we got married, had a baby, and moved a couple times locally.

A couple years ago, we considered him getting back into the Army, but we dismissed it without much thought.  However, the idea didn’t disappear as we assumed it would, and this past summer it came back with intensity!  This time, we prayed about it and spent a lot of time seeking God’s will.  After
many affirmations, we knew in our hearts that this was where we were going. 

It’s a huge change from the dream that we’ve always had for our life.  We met while SCUBA diving, and we both always wanted to own a dive shop together somewhere in the Caribbean.  We weren’t sure when, or how, we’d get there, but we wanted to get there.  A couple years ago, we gave that dream up to God.  We prayed about it and told God that if HE wanted us to do that, that we knew He would get us there, but in the meantime, we were willing to do what He wanted us to do.  It really changed our hearts, and opened our minds to a different path that might be in store for us.

I’ve never been an Army wife.  Bug has never been an Army kid.  Hubby has never been a married guy with dependents in the Army.  This is a whole new adventure for all of us! 

We are excited! We know this is where God wants us to go, and my husband is an amazing, patriotic man who loves to serve his country. I am so incredibly proud of him and proud to support him as he serves!


He will be leaving August 30 to start training for his new job.  He’ll be away from home for about 5 months.  We will have limited communication during that time.  Toward the end of that 5 months, we will find out where our duty station will be.  After his training is done, then we’ll figure out where we’re going, and when we will all be moving.  We know we’re moving, but no idea where.  With this job, he could be attached to just about any unit, which means we could end up at any Army post.   It’s all in God’s hands!

Life is a roller coaster ride

One of my closest friends put it this way, “It's like when the cart get's to the top of a rollercoaster isn't it? You know what is coming is scary and exciting but you have no idea what's coming. Just that it's about to start.”


That sums up our life right now just perfectly!  I am so thankful that God is in control!

Our family has some huge changes coming up soon.  Huge changes.  My husband is currently in the process of re-enlisting in the Army, after being out for 13 years.  I will, for the first time in my life, be an Army wife.  We will be moving away from our current home. Hubby has done that before since he served in the Army for 7 years, but I have never in my entire life lived more than 30 miles away from my family.  For the last 30 years, I’ve lived inside the same 30 mile radius.  I’ve always wanted to travel, to live somewhere else, but I haven’t yet.

We don’t know exactly when, or where yet.  Hopefully we will be finding out the *when* soon, ideally this week.  The *where* may not come for a while.

We feel 100% sure that this is a calling for us.  We’ve been praying about this for months and months now, and God has affirmed it for us over and over again.  We’ve been preparing for this for a long time, and the time has arrived.  This is a new adventure for our family.  A chance for us to let go of the reigns and let God use us for His glory.  A chance to serve our country.  To make friends with people we would have otherwise never met.  To see places we would have never seen.  To serve others in ways we don’t even know about yet.

We are excited! A little nervous about some things, sure, but excited! We are walking in faith, trusting Him to lead us and show us where to go, where He wants us.

A long time ago, Rob and I learned that the only way we can get through anything together is by having God as the 3rd strand in our marriage.  The 3rd strand of a rope is what holds it together.  The same is true in our marriage.  We’ve been through a lot together in our 8 years of marriage, and we’ve come out of each situation stronger together, by the grace of God.  We know that this next adventure will be no different!

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. ~ Ecc 4:12


I will be updating here as I know more.  For now, I ask for your prayers as we embark on this new journey together as a family.