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Lord, watch over and protect him every day. Help him to sense your presence and know your peace as he walks this new journey. Thank you for the passion he has for you and your kingdom. Help his heart to not be heavy as he's away from us. Give him strength to endure the hardships and uncertainties. Help him never to doubt your calling on his life and to trust you wholeheartedly. And may your peace guard his heart and mind.

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It's been a little over 15 hours since reality set in. It was difficult to be at work today. I wanted to keep more to myself, praying that nothing would get me too emotional. Several of my friends called to check on me after work and that was nice of them. I pray the summer goes by quickly and we can all be together again.

We haven't had anyone call on the house all week so I'm trying not to worry about it selling before we move. All I can do is pray and trust the Lord and his plan.

Satan tries to hurl his ugly darts our way, but we are standing firm and trusting God. I am grateful that God cares for me and my family. We are safe with him.

Stop the clock!

Only one more day and my husband and very best friend will be headed for a life changing experience! I'm excited and sad all at the same time. Excited because I know it is what the Lord has called us to do and I know my husband will be an awesome chaplain, but sad because we will have to be apart for the summer.

I've found myself waking up the last few mornings thinking, "I can't believe we are this close to him leaving!" We thought it would never get here and now we are wishing the clock would quit ticking so fast. I pray daily the Lord will help me to be excited more and more, and sad less and less. I pray the time will go by quickly and that our children will adjust well. The twins are extremely close to him so I'm wondering what's in store for them, as they were babies when we got out of the Air Force over eight years ago and don't really know what it feels like to be apart from dad for that long.

The one sure thing I can stand on right now is the fact that the Lord is watching over us and has called us to something we can't do on our own so that He can be glorified in and through our lives. I love that in my weakness He is made strong, that He is walking this path with us all and is in complete control.

Though the clock continues to tick, I will trust in you, Lord! Help me to give you every minute of every day and trust you with whatever lies ahead.

Time is drawing near...

I feel as though the tears are just barely hidden behind my eyes, that at any moment they could fall and I will be unable to stop them. I think about my best friend (my husband) leaving for 3 months very, very soon and I want to curl up in ball and weep. We've been best friends for 20 years now, and although we've been apart before it's been a long, long time! I already feel a little piece of my heart breaking and I'm not sure how much it's going to hurt when he leaves, but I know it will...how can it not!

This Sunday our church will have a commissioning service for him and he will say good-bye. Next week our daughter will graduate from high school and we'll spend the next four days together as a family then he will jump in his truck and head off to training.

I know sometimes he worries about me and how I will do when he leaves, especially when I lay on his shoulder and cry because I just can't help it. I pray I can be strong for him and our children. I'm so thankful I have a heavenly Father who brings comfort, peace and strength. I can't even imagine going through this without the Lord in my life!

A few moments of tears...

This morning I woke up and no sooner did I get out of bed did the tears start falling. I guess it finally hit me - my life as I know it is REALLY (and I mean REALLY) about to change! Tomorrow is Mother's Day and may be the last time for a while that I get to spend Mother's Day with two of my four children. My husband and I and our twins will be moving over 3,000 miles away, while our daughter will stay and continue to go to college and our oldest son will go in to the Air Force.

How real is it getting for me? On Tuesday our son swears in and in 17 days my husband leaves for three months of training to be a chaplain in the Army. The day after he returns we move. I crawled into bed last night thinking that in three and a half months I'll be crawling into bed in a totally different place!

This Sunday is the last Sunday my husband will preach in the church we started seven years ago. Next Sunday will be my last Sunday to lead in worship there. As I worked on the service for that Sunday it was so difficult. My mind was flooded with beautiful memories of worshipping the Lord together with other believers. So many songs had memories of beautiful worship to my God and King, and the excitement of how it would feel to look out and see other people praising God or broken because of the words we just sang and how God used that song to speak to their heart. Thoughts of how wonderful it's been to work with a great group of people on our praise team for all these years and the friendships born out of that come to mind, or when we'd sing a song over and over again at practice just because we wanted to continue to praise the Lord with the words flowing from that song! I pray God will give me the opportunity to continue to work with music wherever we go. It's a great passion of mine - one I know he has given me.

Well, the tears have gone and the Lord has replaced it with excitement as I wrote this. I love how the Lord can do that. I know He has great plans for us and I thank Him for His love and compassion that move me. I love the Lord with all my heart and will serve Him however He leads...even across the states and away from my children, my family and my friends. He tells us to take up our cross and follow Him and that's what I am going to do!