Iraq Comes Calling

(My Hero - Don't mess with him!)

Many of you know by now that Andrew has been called to serve in Iraq. On Monday, December 10th an email was sent to him from the Pentagon asking for him to serve in Iraq on a Joint Task project....On Wednesday, December 12th at 10am he had a meeting with his commanding officers who gave him permission to go. (they had the right to not let him go, based on the base's needs) It was slightly surreal to wait all morning for his phone call confirming he would be going. By 11:15 he called and not only said it had been approved but that he would have 7 weeks of pre-deployment training (this was a complete surprise to both of us - not that he would have training but for how long) and then would be deploying June 19th. When we first found out about of this, his location was classified..... It has since been disclosed...Baghdad (but not to Central Command - he will be at a smaller base that is not heard about that much in the news) The basics un-classified version of what he will be doing is remote electronic warfare....GPS/IED's/Jamming technology etc....

We both know that the Lord is calling Andrew to this mission. There have been others at his base that have asked to go and been denied. Because of his job description (for military folks he is a 62 - non military it means he is a certain type of engineer) he was never supposed to go. He has been traveling a lot this Fall presenting at bases all over the country about jamming technology and GPS and because of that his name became known....Doing a job well got him recognized in a way we never thought possible.

I shed a lot of tears over this past week and weekend..... My thoughts ranged from the daily living alone, to missing his birthday, to his safety..... Many people have tried to comfort us with "it will be okay" but we both realize that may not be true. He is stepping out in faith and honor that the Lord has called him to serve our country by leaving the comfort of home and going to the "danger zone" but there is no guarantee that he will come home. Truthfully and painfully, there is never a guarantee for either of us to come home each night. God has a purpose and calling for both of our lives and it may look different than we and many expect. We both rest assured that our lives are for the Lord and that our salvation is in the Lord's hands.

Realizing that I want to hold onto him tightly to save myself from pain has been easy to admit, but hard to actually loosen up my grip. We are thankful that we get to enjoy each other for next few months before he leaves in April for training. We are trying to be prayerful with each other in this time of preparation and deal with our fears and the future honestly. We covet all prayers for us in this time. We are planning on taking time to visit with both sides of the family before April and take a 2nd "honeymoon" somewhere fun. Hopefully we will see many of you along the way.........