8.28.06

New letters

I talked to my DI and he will not let me go home for the surgery. That stinks. He wasa kind of ticked off at my recuiter and at MEPS for letting me come here without getting them (the ears) taken care of first.

I just found out that once in a training company I can not write letters in bed or on square away time until 2nd phase. But that will be a while.

Are you going to be ok with me being gone this extra time? It is going to turn into a 4-month or longer thing. I think that God is and is going to continue to use me here. I am already talking to recruits about Jesus and giving their heart to Christ. They all need hope in here and a lot turn towards a power.

I was also talking to my DI on the way back from the hospital (and by the way, most of the DIs are younger than me) and he was asking what I did before I came here. I told him about the coffee shop thing and he perked up a bit. I turns out that he wants to open a coffee shop sometime. So he starts asking me all these questions about start up and profit on drinks and stuff. He ended up telling me that we would talk about it later. Well got to go I love you ALL! Kisses to both Girls and my woman. :-)

Love Adam

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wed 8/23
Today was very hot here. We still went and did 1/4 mile sprints. I am not the fastest guy around, but I come in first or second everytime. It really winds me though, trying to keep up with the 17 and 18 year olds. I can do what they can do but it is just that afterwards I want to take a nap. Ha! It was so hot today that two kids passed out while running on the track. They were ok but they didn't drink enough water. We have to drink 8-10 canteens full of water a day. But the DI's don't always let you use the bathroom. When you neeeed to go too. They like it when we are trying to our hardedst not to wet ourselves. A recruite just has to be smart about when and where he goes. No accidents for me yet!! Ha! The food here isn't that bad. It is no home cooked mean, but after a day of running and marching it tastes pretty good. That is if you are lucky enough to taste it. I don't really have dreams yet. I think I had one kind about you and the girls, but it is hard to remember them in the morning, because at 4:15 AM our day starts very fast. I am going to get my ear stitched tomorrow, so that is good news.

Well I will write more later, I am running out of envelopes and paper, so until I amd able to buy more, letters might slow a bit. ANd they will slow down a lot once I get in a training company. Love you all!!!

Adam

Surgery is set for this Thursday at 9AM.

I hear the DI's think Adam is going a great job and staying very motivated! (They would never tell him this though. :-)

Tonight, Livi learned how to say, "Ooh-rah!"

8.22.06

"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" - Romans 8:32

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for so faithfully upholding this family on a daily basis. Thank you that my girls are happy girls. Lord, forgive me for times when I lack patience and wisdom in being a good parent. Please increase in me YOUR wisdom and YOUR patience and help me to decrease my stubborn and impatient habits.

I pray that you would use us girls in amazing ways while Adam is away. Continue to reveal your purpose for us in our daily lives. Grow in my girls and in me, the desire to know you more and serve you daily - to put aside our own comforts and agendas so we can join You in Your plans and the work You've already started around us.

Continue to strengthen the purpose You've deemed for Adam. Please bring that purpose more into focus every day so that Adam would not lose hope or courage or faith when the tasks he faces seem so insurmountable. Please use that purpose as a means to encourage him and strengthen him.

During the times where we miss each other so much that it hurts - will You remind us that You are with us at all time? Please comfort our hearts when they are heavy. Please help Bryna, especially, as she can't fully comprehend time, space, and having her Daddy gone. Lord thank You for the father/daughter relationship you've given my girls. It is awesome.

Thank You, God, for the friends and family who very tangible help us, and for those who support us in prayer.

Never let us lose sight of You , God. Please keep our hearts focused on you so that our lives point to you.

In Your Name, Amen.


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So it turns out that I don't know how to use a tile cutter. Maybe the tiles are just being stubborn. :-) I also need some coaching in the area of sanding. I'm sanding down my cupboards (just getting some coats of blonding off). I think I need a different grade of sandpaper - something grittier. I was hoping to forego the use of a paint remover inside the house. Feel free to post your DIY tips!!!

Thanks for checking in on us.
Love,
Gena

Letters:

1)
Hey Babe-
This is the first chance I have to write and I just got interrupted again. I am in sick bay for my ears. I have to get them stitched up on Monday and let them heal. I haven't even started training yet. ANyway I could call you tonight, but even the thought of hearing your voice while I am here almost breaks me down. I just want to start training to get home after.

Oh yeah, tell Clay that I am so so so so so so sorry, but he needs to make other plans for a best man. Nothing I can do about it now. Tell Bryna that I get to have chocolate milk everyday. So on Monday I see the doctor who will scrape and stitch my ears up. And then I have to let them heal. Not sure if next friday I can drop back in.

The DI's are here are like rabid bulldogs who just drank 25 cans of redbull. They are intense. I am meeting some cool and then some interesting people. Well it's lights out now, so I will wrie more later.

Love you very much and miss all my girls. Kiss my girls for me! Love, Adam.

2)
Hey Girl-
Today is Saturday. We watched "Anchor Man" today after afternoon chow. It is more laid back here in MRP than in a regular training platoon. Every one is also sick or injured so I am washing my hands A LOT! It is kinda sad because most of the these guys don't want to be here anymore. We just got back from evening chos tonight and a boy named Spencer or something was in the bathroom with his wrist slit. We are not allowed to have stuff like razors and tape so we can't cut ourselves or hang ourselves. He cut himself pretty bad, but he is alright. Is is for that reason why it is so hard for me to be in MRP. I have to keep a postitive attitude to keep getting closer to you. I love you all so much. Hugs and kisses to all - Adam.

3)
Girl-
Days in the MRP go by so slowly. But I talked to a First SGT today who was going to see what was up with me getting dropped for my ears. He had never heard of that happening before. But I still think of home all day long. I think about what you are doing. I have to remind myself everyday that I will be home soon.
Anyway, enough of that stuff :-) I get to start PTing tomorrow. All I am doing right now is marching and pushups/situps/pullups at night.

I am not sure what my graduation date is for sure. And make sure you call Clay and tell im how sorry I am for doing this to him at his wedding. I feel worse about that than anything else. I am not sure if he will want to talk to me after I get back and I don't blame him. I owe him a huge gift or something so that I can start to make it up to him. I will write him later and try to explain it to him. Sorry brother - I love you!

The food isn't too bad here but they don't use enough garlic. Haha. Plus it cannot compare to my wonderful wife's food.

Time for sleep. I can write about everyday rght now in MRP but once I join a training platoon it will spread out.

Hi Bryna, I love you. How is my watch doing?
Hi Livia, I love you. Say "Daddy!"

I LOVE YOU GIRL!

Adam

4)
Gena-
Today was another slow day in the MRP. Days seem to drag forever. I want to start training so I can start my countdown to grad. and you girls. I sit around and write letters to you, read my Bible, and try to learn as much as I can from the other guys here. Oh yeah, and I try not to get larengitis, bronchitis, or any other of the illnesses that these guys have.

Everyone PLEASE keep praying for my patience and strength to carry on. I know it can't last forever, eventhough it seems like it at times. Please wirte and Gena please send one or two pictures if you haven't yet. I need to know that you are still supporting me. It is possible that I might leave here on Friday and maybe not. If I do, there is an chance that my mail will not get to me. It should though. If anyone has a piece of mail returned to them, look for my new address on the blog and resend it to me please!

Kiss and Hug both the girls for me.

Tell Bryna that I still get chocolate milk every morning. :-)

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Keep writing I need to hear from you!!!!

Adam

I was able to have a phone conversation with Adam tonight. It was a very rare, and wonderful treat. He got 15 minutes. It was so awesome to hear his voice.

He really needs your prayers right now. His situation has become very discouraging recently. There is some uncertainty as to what they will do with his ears, but it's looking like he most likely will not be back in time for the wedding. This is very devastating for all parties involved. My heart breaks the most, though, for Clay and Adam. Those boys have an incredible bond - a profound brotherly love. Never have I seen two brothers have so much admiration and pride for eachother. Adam, of course, feels completely terrible about it. He's asked me so many times to say how sorry he is.

Right now he's in "limbo." They had him in sick bay for the past 10 days, and just yesterday moved him to PCP - physical conditioning platoon - but he still is not officially training. He's very broken and disheartened right now. He just wants to move on and get the training going so he can get back home.

I got 3 letters from him yesterday!!! It was like I just won the lottery! I read and read and re-read them. It felt like I was holding a million dollars. I had six letters piled up just waiting to send. I was shaking as I addressed them - as if the more quickly I addressed the envelopes, the sooner he'd get them.

When we first spoke today I said: "I just sent you seven letters!!!" (I added one more last night.) He said, "Thank God!" The timbre of his voice was that of pure gratitude - like receiving a meal after days w/o eating. It broke my heart.

I will post portions of his letters here soon. For now - please continue to pray specifically:
- That his ear debacle would be resolved. And better yet - they'd just drop him into training starting Monday so he could still make the wedding!
- That he would sense God's presence every minute of everyday.
- That he would maintain perspective.
-That training would begin ASAP.
-That the DI's would miraculously show favor toward him. (He did mention that some higher-ups were impressed by him (he stood at attention for 20 minutes w/o flinching! Go Disney!) but befuddled by his status.
-Tomorrow AM his recruiting officer will be calling his Senior DI. Let God create a resolution and provide a way out of this limbo state and into the next phase. (There was another young man w/ holes in his ears who basically got the boot. He chose not to have the surgery and got some kind of dishonorable discharge.)

He's asked, very specifically for all to keep praying for him. So thank you for your faithfulness.

I do have an address for him - so if you're interested, feel free to email me, and I will tell you the protocol.

Thank you for checking in on us and keep a look out for the letters to be posted soon.

Much love and gratitude,

Gena

PS - One praise report - Although I am sad for Adam and the whole wedding situation - He's given me the peace that passes all understanding. I know God is in this. I know He'll be glorified, and I know Adam will still be used for an amazing purpose.

I had the most surreal conversation with Adam last week.

The phone rang about 9:00 AM. I answered, "This is Gena." (It was my business line)

The voice I heard on the other line was not Adam's. I had no idea who was calling me! It was very confusing. In retrospect all I can say is that it sounded as though he was "sounding off" as they do to address their DI's - but in a quiet, and sort of high-pitched voice. Must've been becuase he was trying to accommodate the snarly DI standing behind him but also not blow out my ear drums - for which I'm thankful.

A: "Hello."

G:"Hello??"

A:" I'm calling to tell you my graduation date will be delayed one week."

G: "Huh?"

A:"My graduation date will be delayed one week."

G:"Ok.....?"

A: I have to go.

G: Ok, bye.

A: Bye.

-----------
It seriously took me a few mintues to process what I just heard. I was actually, physically shaken by the call. I just could not believe that was Adam speaking like that.

The next thing I did was to call his recruiter to ask - "Why has my husband's grad date been delayed a week??" Apparently he was just in the midst of trying to locate my phone number when I called - they know everything - spot-on.

So it turns out - the holes in Adam's ears that were created by his ear "plugs" had not grown shut. This is by far NOT Marine reg. He somewhat anticipated this in advance, so he divised his own methods of trying to get them to grow back together - I won't go into specifics, but I will say that sandpaper had something to do with it. (eeww.) This was about a week before he left. Down in Sioux Falls, SD where he went through all the medical checks - he totally passed, so he was not as concerned about them.

Let's just forget about the fact that his wife ever so delicately suggested he go in for some outpatient surgery to get a few stitches. :-)

Anyway - that's the scoop. Now the challenge remains to get him (and us) back from graduation in time to make his brother's wedding rehearsal. Our whole family is in the wedding. It looks like it's going to be a little tricky. Not sure what's going to happen there - but we're working on it!

The home report: Thank God, our lice issue is under control! We are slowly easing back into normal life, but very cautiously. I just now found the source of the problem. Our neighbor kids, who are over here 24-7 had it a while back and did not bother to tell us. They will now have to be checked daily before playing with my kids. It's a shame - but I'm not going through that again.

Hope everyone is well.

Love,
Gena

What a lousy week. I wish I could say Adam's absence is the only reason why, but unfortunately I'm saying that quite literally. Sunday evening I found head lice on the girls. Life as I knew it - which was still somewhat topsey turvey - has totally flipped upside down.

Both my mom and I have been putting in about 15 hour days to combat this. (She is awesome. I don't think I'd have any sanity left if not for all her hard work. Thanks mom - you rock.) We've stripped the whole upstairs of anything fiberous that's removable - i.e. everthing except the couch and mattresses - bagged them, washed TONS of laundry, treated girls heads, scrubbed everything clean - every surface. Vacuumed and vacuumed some more. Sprayed furniture, etc., etc. My basement is closed for the next two weeks.

As for the girls' treatments - well that's another story. It takes about 2 hours to treat each girl. I've spent well over 100 dollars on a combo of OTC meds as well as prescription meds and even a doc's visit. NOTHING had worked. Until yesterday. I began to do olive oil w/ tea tree oil massaged into their scalp and hair - shower capping it for about an hour. Then washing it out - rinsing with vinegar (anyone hungry for salad yet? yuck) - then washing and rinsing normally. Then the fun part. I put on a headlamp and start combing and picking out each nit by hand since the stupid nit combs are totally useless - metal and plastic alike. This takes a minimum of 1.5 hours on Bryna for the picking alone. I'm suprised I still have my eyesight. Not to mention half her hair has been cut out. Thankfully she's got thick hair so you can't really tell. Yet. And then there's sweet little Livi - who doesn't know what's going on - won't still still for any thing. With her, I'm nearly considering a shave. It breaks my heart to even say it. She has such beautiful hair. But she's my baby - so I'll think she's pretty no matter what.

Then trying to keep up with work deadlines. I'm not putting in nearly the time I need to be - but I can't take my kids anywhere yet, so I've been up way early to work. Trying to work over nap time and then again late at night.

Lord help me.

The only up-side to all this is I've been too busy to be too sad about Adam. Although it'll hit me every once in a while and I'll fight a few tears.

At any rate - I didn't mean to run on, nor am I fishing for pity - just needed a little vent and could really use your prayers. It's awful timing - I just keep looking for God's purpose in it. And trying to keep perspective - I know it could be something way worse!!

Thanks for propping me up w/ a prayer tonight.

Gena

Pictures as promised.

Adam's depature, and our fun week. Notice the lastest trends in shower caps. Also note the piles of clean laundry in the background. :-)

I last spoke with Adam, Monday around 3:30. He was waiting for his flight to Denver/San Diego in the Sioux Falls airport. He was mostly upbeat, and seemed less anxious. He felt good to have the journey in progress.

There was one other recruit flying out with him - also from Mankato. His name is Joshua, and he's 23 years old. Joshua is a Christian. I guess they had a lot of things in common, aside from their faith and created quite an instant bond. Joshua's comment was "it was no mistake they were put there together." To which Adam said something like, "rock on, man." :-) They made a vow to help eachother through the next 90 days to the best of their ability. It's so confirming and reassuring to see God's hand at work by providing a new friend like Joshua.

I don't have much to update on - but did want to provide you with a link to Adam's training matrix (click me), so you can follow his daily progress.

I'll let you know when I hear anything from him - I havent' gotten "the call" yet. I am already writing letters though, and hope he enjoys a nice big stack of them for his first mail call. The process is that he writes home a "form letter" along w/ his address w/in the first 2 weeks. If anyone is interested in writing you can email me once I have his address. There is some protocol to follow, so I'll inform you of it as soon as I'm able.

Love to all,
Gena

"Dear Jesus,

Thank for you daddy to go the Marines. Please keep him safe and have him come back soon. Please help him have a good time at boot camp. In Jesus Name, Amen." - Bryna's Bedtime prayer.

So here we are. The journey has officially begun. The past 3 or so days have been a whirlwind. I can't quite make sense of where my emotions are at the moment. Adam left today at 1pm.

Where to begin...

Evidently poker night was a super hit! Although Adam did not win any pots, he still enjoyed hanging out with the guys. His favorite brother was able to make up even! The night ended on a great note with all the guys taking turns praying for Adam. I'm sure it was quite the moment. He's so blessed to have friends who hold him up like that.

Adam and his bro spent about 10 hours wrangling with an overhead microwave oven and some stubborn tile on Saturday. Adam swore that he'd complete that project before he left, and he totally got it done. I love it! Now I get to do the fun part - the grout. :-) It was great having his brother here hanging out with us. It was such a pleasant distraction. I think if it were just us, there would've been too many opportunities to pay attention to the looming black cloud and allow our nerves to get the best of us.

We had a great time late last night sitting out on the deck together in the very lovely summer night breeze. Awesome memories to last me a while.

This morning came all too soon. We barely got finished with breakfast and realized there was only about an hour and a half left before it was time for him to go. He quickly taught me how to charge video cameras, and our digital camera. It was our final wrap up of family business and just plain nuts and bolts stuff.

He "packed" a change of clothes for the next day, minimal toiletries, his Bible, his ID and SS card. Talk about traveling light!
For the next half-hour (which seemed like both 2 hours and only 5 minutes) we just hung around in the driveway. My folks were out waiting with us, along with some neighbor kids and our nephew. It was really nervewracking! So many tears and hugs and some good laughs - overall pretty light hearted. When the car pulled up - my stomach dropped like a rock. We called both girls over one more time for a final hug (I tried to sneak about 3 extra ones in there). We watched as he got into the car. Poor Bryna let out a, "Daddy! Wait!" She got one more hug in. They turned around, we waved, and with that - he was gone. It was the hardest, most surreal moments I think I've had.

We've kept busy for the remainder of the day. Cleaning, playing, had dinner with my cousin (thanks for that you guys). It was nice to get out and get our minds off of things.

I just finished writing my first letter to Adam. He'll get about 5 on his first mail call, as they provide his address via mail. Once I get that letter I'll post it here.

Much more to say - but I better get to bed for a good day's start tomorrow.

Thank you for taking the time to check in on us! God bless, Gena

(pictures coming soon)

08.04.06

Tonight Adam is with all his good guy-buddies having one last poker night for a while. Nothing like vats of chili, and cards to make a fun night for the boys.

On Wednesday we were able to spend some time at the Minnesota Zoo. Yes - I did get out of the office! My company has been beyond flexible in allowing me to relish these last few days. At any rate - the zoo was very interesting, as little Miss Livi had a definite aversion to each and every animal. She was totally freaked out. We went through the tropics trail, to Discovery Bay, past the African animals. Each one was just agonizing for her! She made a little scared face and made teeny fists of fright. It wasn't until we met the meer cats that she lit up. Bryna ate up every moment, of course. And were just completely entertained by them both.

It was so lovely, walking together as a family - trying to maintain some level of ignorance of the imposing leave date. It's weird to think of the "last" things. The last time we'll do this for a while, etc. And, for Adam - the last time doing a LOT of things as a civilian. I think we are just really trying to soak it all in and we can't get enough!

Today we went out and got an early b-day present for Bryna. She's been riding a 2-wheeler for almost 2 years now, and has never had her own - usually garage salers - which is totally fine. Except the fact that they all have flat tires, or some other major malfunction. So we finally lept and got a nice BIG, big-girl bike. She did just fine until she got going way to fast (trying to race her older, boy cousin) and took a big nasty spill. I, thankfully, didn't see most of it lagging way behind the rest of the crew, but Adam's explaination, coupled with her road rash was plenty! The poor thing. She was awfully shook up, but determined to get back on tomorrow to try again. Nevermind the fact she didn't want to cut the ride short to go get bandanged up! :-)

Here are a few pics from this week's adventures.









In closing - we got a really neat card from Adam's folks for our anniversary (thanks "mom" :-) The quote read: "God doesn't just know your story, He wrote it." - Max Lucado

How true, and how comforting.

It's still not a reality to me. I don't know what to expect and am guarded with my emotions - afraid that if I allow any at all - the flood gates will break! But I do know there's a hope and a future and great plans - just like God promises in Jeremiah 29:11

With that - Good night, God bless - and more to come. (including the pizza I just ordered.)