He's Almost 10

We are two days away from a very big day in the Smith Family. Our oldest son Jaeden will be turning 10 on August 5th. He now stands very tall and comes to just below my chin. He is a funny kid with a dry sense of humor and a memory as good as an elephants. He is easy going, but has started getting a little more expressive when he does become frustrated with his siblings. His best friend is still...and probably always will be...his little brother Brandon. They do everything together. Jaeden has always been shy...even when he was a little baby. Who am I kidding, the boy was never little. He arrived on this earth weighing almost 10 pounds. The sweet little newborn outfit I bought him to go home in wouldn't button around his chunky neck. He was so young when we brought Brandon home from the hospital, but I so believe God knew what he was doing when he blessed Jaeden with a little brother.

I am grateful that God blessed our family with Jaeden. He reminds me to stop and appreciate all the great things in life.....like airplanes. He loves airplanes just like his Dad. He tells us often that he wants to be an air traffic controller. He knows the names of more planes than his Dad and that is saying a lot. I can't believe he is 10. I will never forget the day he joined our family. We don't have a video of that moment.....I don't need one. I remember every detail and replay it often. I can't wait to see what the next 10 years of Jaeden's life will bring about. I hope he always knows how special and wonderful our family thinks he is.

The Last Plane has Left.............

and my husband was not on it. It all seems a little surreal really. Keith was cleared to go...he had papers in hand that were stamped "cleared to deploy". He headed over to the med clinic to pick up Maleria pills that he'd forgotten and when the pharmacist pulled up his file there was a flag on it. His file was flagged because of a medication he takes for blood pressure. They told him they'd have to submit a waiver for him to deploy with that medication and told him it'd be back in the morning. When he went to get the waiver it came back DENIED. But not because of his blood pressure medication....it was his back. Most of Keith's friends know he's suffered from a back injury for about 8 years not and it was the elephant in the room that no one in his unit wanted to talk about because they needed him in Afghanistan. We were worried and we thought for a couple of days they would force him to medically retire due to his non-deployable status. I don't think the Army would let him off that easy....seems Keith is non-deployable to Afghanistan, but he is still deployable to other places in the world. Needless to say we were excited to hear he didn't have to go, but Keith had to battle with the emotional demons that told him he should be there with his men....for a soldier I don't think those ever go away. I too felt a little guilty at rejoicing that he didn't have to go when so many men did. But we would soon discover what God and the Army had in store for Keith.

Five days after finding out he was staying state side, Keith was chosen to take over the rear detachment company and will serve as First Sergeant for the year. I had forgotten how big of a responsibility that really was....Keith hadn't had a first sergeant in 7 years. Being responsible for 180 soldiers and the families of those that are overseas serving has turned out to be a huge job, but one Keith is absolutely up for. He has worked long hours, sat at the side of a spouse whose husband was dying, delivered news to children of Charlie Simmons that their dad was very sick, he remembered to deliver that coin to Charlie's son and a saber necklace to his daughter, he's helped a young soldier of 19 who didn't quite know where to turn, helped a soldier that had been written off as no good. I don't know what kind of difference Keith would have made over in Afghanistan....I'm sure it would have been immense. Here at Fort Hood, he's making a difference and we're only 2 months in. I'm anxious to see how this year will go while he serves in this capacity. As he would say, he's busier than a one armed paper hanger with an itchy nose. I am so very proud of him.

I wish you could have seen Jaeden's face when Keith told him he didn't have to leave. He had a pretty rough year...that ended great. But I was worried with Dad gone, he might have another rough start to the school year. I don't know why God chose to leave Keith with us, but we're not asking questions.....we intend to make this year COUNT!!!

June 15th, 2011 - Getting Ready for Dad's Deployment

This time last year, we were wrapping up our four and a half years in Budapest, Hungary. I never imagined then that we'd be in the position of getting ready for a year long deployment. I don't know why.......I am married to a soldier. However, for the past 6 years Keith has belonged to a specific section of the Army that only deployed to war zones 2 or 3 months at a time. I think I got a little too comfortable in that part of the Army.

It seems that the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan are drawing down (that is atleast what our President is saying). I am not kidding myself though, he's going to a dangerous place that is full of people who do not want him there and don't like him simply because he is an American. I think many soldiers going these days wonder what the heck are we doing there. Regardless of why we are there.....there is where my husband has orders to report to. We passed a truck the other day with the words - Welcome Home Daddy....we missed you! In midsentence Keith stopped and said to me, "that's why I'm going Holly...so some other guy whose spent a year away from his family can come home".

Things have definitely changed though since the last time Keith was deployed almost 11 years ago. Our communication will be much more frequent. We have skype, email and he can even have a phone on him. With our itouch and ipad we can do face time whenever we are near wifi. Believe it or not...that's available on the base Keith will be on. He assured me last night that if something as simple as a broken leg happens I'll probably know within hours and will probably be contacted by him. Keith has more than once exclaimed to me his top priority is to keep him and his younger soldiers safe and return them to their families. I will cling to that statement.

Three hundred and sixty four days ago we returned from overseas. It feels like time has flown since that day we stepped off of the plane. I am praying that the next 364 days (starting next weekend) will go by just as fast. In that time we will celebrate one 15th wedding anniversary, four kids birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and the end of another school year. I love my soldier so very much. His safety will be my first prayer in the morning and my last prayer in the evening. I'm hoping to use this blog both as a place for me to make sense of my days and for Keith to read about our days while we are here in Texas...........................................

Waiting on Our Soldier.