Camp Buehring, Kuwait
Well, here I am. Chaplain Andrews is deployed. We began to get ready to leave early last week. I packed up my office the week before and did most of my last minute shopping, so I was able to spend the last couple of days with my family.
So I did.
The last day was a hard one. I found out during the day on Thursday that the time of the formation had moved from 0530 to 0030 on Friday, 11 April 2008. This pushed a rush on our plans–I was hoping to have one more night’s sleep, even if it were 4 hours. It still would feel like we had an extra day. I called Monica and we changed our good-bye plans. 0030 is not the best time to bring the kids and wait on the bus to arive for 2 hours. So, we did our good-byes at home.
Monica and I sat around and watched the clock for several hours as the night got later. We were able to watch one last episode of House, since it came on at 2000. And then House was off the air. We switched the channels to hear Hillary Clinton say “I applaud the President for dropping the deployments down to 12 months.”Â
I looked at Monica. She looked at each me. We both no better than to believe that was true. Moinica spoke first; “And that’s how rumors get started.”
So, we turned to the Pentagon Channel and the ticked across the bottom told us the truth. Deployment had changed to 12 months for everybody deploying after 1 August 2008. Well, reality set in. 15 months. Never really thought there was a chance for it to change–but, boy, that’s a long time.
This reality hitting on the last hours of my visit made the good bye a little harder. I woke the kids up at about 1130 for brownies and milk. Even Will enjoyed the snack. And I began to put my gear on. We talked a little about me leaving and I was able to hold and pray for each child.Â
Through the tears I was able to walk out the door. There is something comforting about the call that God places on our lives. No matter how much it hurts, I know that God has called me to do this. And I know that it will be ok. God will see us through.
And since God called me to do this, he also placed in me a love for the soldeirs and the job. Except for the being away from family for 15 months, I am happy to be here–doing God’s will. Telling people about Jesus.