Send Off

Obviously since Matt already blogged, it's no surprise that he has taken off. He's been gone a week & a half or so. I meant to blog on our road trip home but we actually drove through the night instead. Again, Joella was a trooper. She couldn't have done any better on the long trip back to Iowa.

Fortunately we were able to really enjoy our last few days together instead of stressing out too much about the situation. Once we turned over the house there was time to hang out and get some relaxing in. Joella went swimming for the first time and loved it more than we ever expected.


Below are a few pictures from the day of the send off.


WARNING: this blog gets wordy, so if you like to stick to pictures, you've seen it all for now :)

It was interesting to see how different people dealt with their emotions. Some family members cried a lot throughout the afternoon. Others sat around without much to say. Some couples stood outside and hugged for a really long time. We watched them from the air conditioned car...too hot and sunny to be out for so long! There were a few moments that stuck out in my mind that day. The first was watching a deploying mom leave her baby (maybe one year old) and handing him to her parents for the year. Another was a cute little girl in cowboy boots who was old enough (5-6 years) to know what was going on. That's when the idea of a year of them being away started to bug me. She was sad but quiet about it and had a stuffed animal just kind of drooping from her hand. Matt and his parents I and I mostly joked around and it wasn't until the 10 minute goodbye warning that I thought to myself, "Oh wow, this is for real." It was tough to see Matt say goodbye to Joella. Another vivid picture from the day was Matt holding and looking down at her with a few tears rolling out from under his sunglasses [Sorry, Babe -- I thought I'd let them know you're human :)] I'm just glad that for this goodbye she didn't have to think about much besides waving/flapping her little hand and smiling (seen in the picture above).

I'm not asking for a pity party here -- just thought I would share a bit of what's been going on with us. It's been an eye opener for me to realize what other families have to deal with when their soldier deploys. They aren't necessarily set up with such an awesome support network like we are. Deploying is just "normal" in the active duty Army community and families have no choice but to take on the extra responsibilities. It feels like we have been gearing up for this deployment for so long that it's almost a relief now that we can start the countdown for Matt to come back :)

Matt and I were able to Skype a couple times while he was in Kyrgyzstan. He doesn't have the same internet access in Afghanistan. I have gotten one phone call from him though. He can get e-mails and sometimes send them. They are short because he has to text them and doesn't have reliable coverage. If you want to text him or send him letters, e-mail me and I'll get you the info.

An e-mail from Matt:

~~~~
Hey! How are you? Wanted to let you know that I am safe and sound in Afghanistan. Got here last night. Things are about what I expected here, but it is still crazy. Dust everywhere. Everywhere. We do have showers, though I get so dusty/sweaty coming back its almost not worth it. Was about 117 degrees yesterday...not quite that bad today. Got phone data working, seems to be pretty slow. Got all your emails and texts, having some trouble getting back to you now. I think the network is hit or miss.

Miss you. Miss joella. Don't mind it here otherwise. Haven't been sleeping much it seems. Loud because of tight quarters. Can't complain though - maybe in a couple months I'll be good and sick of everything. Food is good - had lobster and crab legs tonight.

Anyway, Love you lots - hope things are going well.

Matt

~~~~

Since this e-mail, Matt's also told me that they walk a LOT. A couple miles to and from his meetings each day. 1-1 1/2 miles to and from his meals. Crazy, huh?

Like Matt said in his last post, we were overwhelmed (pleasantly) with all the notes / e-mails / thoughts / calls / prayers we've been getting from everyone. The prayers are evident, because we have been surprisingly at peace about everything. Joella and I are fortunate and well taken care of here in Iowa. I've been under the radar a bit trying to get my feet on the ground with work and getting settled in. There has been a lot going on and it seems like everyone on both sides of our family is either moving or traveling right now. I am looking forward to catching up with a lot of you soon though!

My first time to Asia

As most of you know, I left Ft. Hood a few days ago for Afghanistan. Due to operational security I can't say exactly where I will be, but I can say that I am being deployed to northern Afghanistan as part of the presidential surge that was called for back in the fall of 2009. Our job here will be to provide MEDEVAC coverage for our area of operation.Well, we aren't quite to our destination yet but I wanted to post a real quick update to our progress.

Right now we're in in Kyrgyzstan for an unknown number of days prior to moving south. The camp that we're in is actually pretty nice - there is air conditioning in all the tents/buildings (sometimes working better than others), free wifi internet in a lot of places, decent enough food (not MREs, always a plus), and there isn't much work to be done. It's a nice transition from the states because we still have some of the niceties that we won't have where we are going, and our combat zone pay benefits started the day we arrived here.

I have a feeling my updates will be few and far between going forward, but I'll do my best to post some pictures that I take along the way.

Here we are waiting for our transportation to the airfield, not too long after saying good bye to our families:


This one was taken right when we arrived here -- standing around in the rocks waiting for something:


The first of what I presume will be very many dust storms. I imagine they will get a lot worse than this, but it still wasn't much fun cleaning dust out of my ears.


I found a way to get my British Open fix:


I also want to say a quick thank you to everyone for their prayers and support for our family. It has been overwhelming to experience the love and support from so many people and really means a lot to us.

Make it FUN

Despite the circumstances, we have been having a lot of fun around here!

This is what Joella thinks about Matt deploying

Fun time w/ dad - trying to use the computer

Arrrrgh

Breakfast was so pretty she thought she'd wear it

Couldn't have planned this one if I tried...

A couple tricks...

Joella waves for us...



She claps too!



And today she surprised us again by standing for the first time on her own (pulling herself up onto something and holding on). Our friend Chelsa said it best when she said that it's amazing how quickly kids learn new skills! Two weeks ago Joella didn't even know how to sit up on her own.

For those of you wondering if she has started "actually" crawling yet...nope! She still does her lizard/army crawl everywhere! She's so efficient with it that I don't think she has much incentive to do the hands-and-knees thing.