Kirke came home on R&R for two weeks in March. He was home for Korbin and Mackinley's birthday which was fantastic. We went to the Great Wolf Lodge for one of those weekend and had a great time. Here's a few pictures of our time together.
This Wendys has a little kid seating area it was cute!
We're getting settled into our new home fairly well now. The boys are getting adjusted. I've loved having family around and have had so much help with the kids lately and hope that it doesn't die off in the next couple weeks when everyone decides having us here isn't so fun anymore!
Mackinley is going to be 8 months old on Friday and is amazing. She is 16lb 12 oz, finally growing at a great pace! And she's 27 inches long. She can crawl like a champ now and is eating really well too. She's now onto bite sized baby puffs and crackers as well as jars of all sorts of baby food and seems to be okay with eating any flavor though she prefers some over others.
Before Kirke left it was so obnoxiously funny that as soon as he got home and she heard his voice or caught sight of him she'd start whining and crying until he picked her up. Now she's doing it to me and it's not so funny anymore!
Korbin is very happy with his move to first grade and enjoys going to school now. Tayton likes school too and they are both where they need to be! Their teachers seem to enjoy them and that makes me incredibly happy and at ease.
Kirke is getting settled as well. He's working very very long days and eats lunch while he works most days (which is really gross because he's a mechanic but whatever). He has been getting online or calling us nearly everyday but only has been catching the boys on weekends of course. This deployment is especially hard on him because he's never had to leave behind a baby before. The boys were 3 and almost 2 the first time he went, the second time they were 5 and 7 I think.
This is our new home for the next year in just a few weeks.
This is the Google Earth view of our block with my things tagged. I'm so ready to get back "home" and enjoy living near family and childhood friends for the first in over 10 years!
I recieved this in my inbox tonight when I got home from showing off my little girl to one of her great grandma's tonight. I'm reminded again how precious life is and to be grateful and make the most of everyday we have with the ones we love. I can't wait to return home to NY with my baby girl and introduce her daddy to the newest love of his life.
My family prays for the soldiers deployed everyday and I hope that all of you remember that although it's not in the news so much and at the front of our minds we are still losing soldiers and their families and friends are still mourning loses like this one.
Here is the comment I found in my inbox today written by this soldiers mother. I only wish she had left an email address so that I could email her back.
"I'm the mother of Charles Dustin Parrish and I would like to tell you a little about him. He had such a big heart and quick to find humor in everything. He only had three weeks left in his tour but had re-enlisted in April. He was planning on continuing his medical training at Ft Benning, AL. He was too young to die. He had just decided what he wanted to do with the rest of his life and was putting his plan into action. He planned on making up for lost time with his son when he returned home. He had been separated for three years and rarely got to spend time with Caden. This too was a tragedy because Caden could have had more memories of his father. I will make sure Caden knows his dad through us. Dusty left behind two sisters, two brothers, and parents that all miss him dearly. I have to tell you about his other family though. His army family. Dusty was killed June 4th and his birthday was August 21, we we're all dreading that day. Everyday was a living hell for us as it was and we did not know how we were going to get through his birthday. Thirteen of his army family drove from Missouri to Alabama to celebrate Dusty's birthday. They spent the whole weekend with us and I can not tell you how much that helped us. We made it through his birthday with the help of his other family. I will never forget those soldiers and what they did for our family. I got to meet the medic that held my son the last hours of his life. I am grateful for her for being there when I couldn't. He had someone holding him as he slipped away. As Christmas approached another feeling of dread hung over our heads. We are a close family and spent holidays together. Dusty's younger brother is only six so we had to try to celebrate Christmas for him. If not for that fact we would have let the holidays slide by and pretend they did not exist. Two days before Christmas Dusty's sgt offered to come spend the holidays with us. On christmas eve Sgt Brittion, his wife and their infant daughter drove from Missouri to Alabama and spent Christmas with us. I'm not sure if they know exactly how much that meant to us but they saved us. While the void in our hearts still existed they made it a tiny bit smaller by being able to add them in our hearts. I am forever grateful to all of Dusty's Army family. There is not a day that goes by that my son is not in my thoughts. I love and miss him dearly. "
Please hug your children and your spouses tight and remember how precious each day is and say a little prayer for our troops because they are still out fighting and risking their lives everyday.
I suppose I've been missing from the blog world lately. It's been quite an interesting two months around here. We moved from MO to NY. The boys and I spent 9 whole days in NY before deciding to head to MI to await the arrival of our little girl because the birth mom (Jane) was having lots of issues.
We've been here in Michigan for 3 weeks today. Jane is dilated to 2-3 cm right now and hopefully we'll be having a baby soon. My family had a baby shower for us on the 6th and we had a wonderful time catching up since I haven't seen many of the guests in years! I had a great time and got lots of great things for Mackinley.
Her name will be Mackinley Alaine. We will call her Kinley for short. The name Alaine is after our mom's middle names Alice (Kirke's mom) and Jane (my mom and grandma's). I just squished them together and came out with Alaine.
Mackinley is due on March 23 and we're hoping she arrives soon so the boys and I can get back to NY with Kirke. We have two lawyers hired and waiting for the birth to get the ball rolling. One is here in Michigan where we will get a power of attorney so that we can take her to NY with us. She will also handle the birth parents termination of parental rights. Then we have another lawyer in NY that will handle the petition for adoption and representing us there. I'm relieved to have all of the legal stuff in the hands of lawyers and we just need to wait for her arrival.
Please pray for a healthy baby. I know that this pregnancy has been rough and Mackinley may have a rough start. Please keep her and the birth mom in your prayers. We know that if she's born with problems we'll handle them as they come and that we can handle whatever we're given but we pray she's alright!!
Thank you for every one's support and hopefully I'll be posting pictures very very soon!!
Yep the blue leopard print, skin tight skinny jeans!
And then we have the horrible zebra-ish print stretchy capri pants with a too short skirt and sneakers. I'll be finding me a pair of these so soon!
These three girls were some of my favorites! First is the hot pink skinny jeans with white sneakers and a stripped sweatshirt...weird. And Then the girl in the middle with her skinny jeans in red and flip flops...interesting. But their buddy takes the cake with her mini skirt with a tulle tu-tu under it and sneakers.
Here's a picture of some oddly dressed people. Weird, t-shirts and tank tops and blue jeans that aren't tapered, weird. Or hot! I think HOT! Aren't we cute? If only I could've fit into some skinny jeans.....wait I still wouldn't have! 
It inspired us to make these really cool hunters bags like they used during the Revolutionary War to hold their ammunition and the kids think probably a sandwich for lunch!
Our soldier's home and now that we're on the front page of the paper we can't deny we missed each other!
Here's the picture without all the other chaos around it!
Our little family is complete again. It's been a long gazillion months apart! We got the call that our soldiers would be home Monday night. Our welcome home ceremony was to take place upon the arrival of the buses between 2300 and 2400 Monday night.
My soldier called to say their plane had landed in St Louis at 7:30. We all went into action like little ants getting things around. Us wives had dresses to put on and hair and make-up to do. The kids continued playing until we were through and got them dressed up and ready to go. We arrived at the location of the ceremony and were too excited to even make fun of other peoples choice of attire. Well kinda.....
I'm pretty sure that not letting myself get excited until that point was a little crazy. I was about to jump out of my skin waiting on the buses to arrive! Then we watched as the soldiers were unloaded from the buses and filed in, searching for the familiar faces of our own soldiers.
More to come including pictures but I just wanted to let everyone know our soldier is home safe and we're soaking in every little bit of it!
Today we went to the Fourth of July celebration on post as usual. It was not as much fun as last year. Last year was much better so I don't have any great pictures or videos to share. But I highly suggest reading THIS post cause it's funny and has great pictures and it's all pretty much the same except we're all a year older.
We talked about what Independence Day is and the boys understand why we celebrate the Fourth of July. This year I'm a little bit bitter though. I thought I'd have my soldier back and that this would be the best Fourth of July ever. Instead things got jacked up and someone effed up and they are stuck for the time being. The boys were sad when they realized Daddy wasn't home for the Fourth like I had previously told them. It sucks when you let yourself get excited so much that you also let the kids get excited and then have to crush them!
Independence is great when you're talking about our country. Independence rocks when you're talking about a teenager graduating and moving on to college and facing the real world. Independence is especially great when kids can pour their own drinks, fix themselves a snack and even buckle their own seat belt.
For the most part Independence is a positive thing.
For us right now it sucks. I'm so sick to death of doing everything independently. I'm sick of having so much Independence that I sometimes have to think twice about what it was like to have someone here to help carry the load. Independence especially sucks when I have to go to bed independently on a night when I sure would love some company. And it really sucks when you have to independently tell your 6 and 7 year old that you don't know when Daddy will be home even though we've spent two Fourth of July's without him now. And when I have to sit here and listen to the 7 year old sing about how much he misses his dad so much, independently.
So today Independence sucks for our family. We really want to be dependent on the Daddy again!
Hurry home love!
How many more nights do I have to sleep alone? How much does our family have to suffer so that people in some other country can continue to live life as they did before the war? How many more years do my kids and I have to live without a man of the house? A daddy? A husband and best friend?
I'm tired of this life. I want to live the civilian life where we don't have to think twice about our spouse being shipped off to fight for freedom in some other country. Where we can walk outside and not see neighbors hugging goodbye for what may be the day or week or months and even years. I want to take life for granted just for a day, or two.
A few more days can literally turn into a lifetime to the soldier and families awaiting the end of their current tour. One more roadside bomb, suicide bomber or RPG could be the last for those of us still waiting for our soldiers return in just a few weeks or even days.
Half of our battalion is now home. I'd love to say home safe but the occurrence of abuse, assault, accidental and intentional deaths resulting from DUI's and domestic dispute sky rockets when soldiers return from any deployment let alone a 15 month deployment. Suicides become a sad but current trend as well. Even though they're returning home they bring a bit of the war home with them.
I want my soldier returned to me promptly in the same condition in which I surrendered him to this deployment so many months ago. Is that too much to ask? Probably so. Right now I'd settle for a hug and kiss and a smile to reassure me that he's still the soldier I love so much. The one who asked me to marry him 10 years ago tomorrow! (Our wedding anniversary is in December)
Come home soon baby we miss you!
~Till They All Come Home~
I really want to be careful writing this post because I want to be sure and say the right things.
Today we went to SPC Parrish's memorial service held here on post. It was every bit as horrible as you could imagine it to be and more. They did a great job honoring this fallen soldier but there's nothing that can be said or done to change that fact that a 4 year old boy no longer has a daddy. A young, beautiful woman is now a widow. And a mother and father are now without a son. He also had four siblings left behind to carry on with life without their brother.
He made everyone proud. He did his job and he did it well. SPC Parrish left quite an impact on the soldiers he went to war with and worked beside for the past 14 months. He was 23. Only 23 years old.
As his family walked through the doors and took their seats in the front pew of the chapel my heart broke. I had a hard time not thinking about how this could have easily been any one our families sitting in that pew. Any one of us with soldiers in Iraq could be facing that same future this young wife and child are facing. Through their sadness you could still see the pride they have in being a military family.
When the role call began 1SG called off three names of soldiers throughout the chapel. All of whom responded "here first sergeant". And then 1SG called "SPC Parrish" which was followed by silence. Again he called "SPC Charles Parrish", nothing. "SPC Charles Dustin Parrish" and then the gun salute began followed by taps. There is NOTHING in this world that I have ever heard that was as terrible as the silence that followed his name being called in role call without a response.
I heard the muffled sounds of others crying and above them you could hear the cries of a child.
In the front of the chapel sat the boots, weapon and helmet of this young soldier who bravely served our country and won't be coming home. As we exited the chapel we stopped to pay our respects. Soldiers of all ranks saluted SPC Parrish. We then filed out shaking hands and paying respects to the family.
I'll never forget how brave his handsome 4 year old son, Caden was as he sat and shook hands with each and every person who attended the memorial. And I'll probably never forget the sadness and sorrow that I saw in the face of his beautiful wife. My heart aches for them and I don't know how they will ever manage to get through this time in their lives because I can't imagine being in her shoes. She was supposed to be getting ready for the homecoming of her husband not the funeral and final goodbye.
Please stop and say a prayer for this family who is paying the ultimate price for freedom. And next time you see a service member in uniform stop them, shake their hands and know that you are shaking hands with one of many of the bravest, strongest most loved Americans you will ever meet.
Ashley, Caden and the rest of the Parrish family, you're in our thoughts and prayers. I don't have the right words to say to you. As I shook hands with you today I had no words at all as I struggled to fight back the tears. Tears for a soldier I never had the pleasure of meeting. I want to thank you and your family for your service to our country. Each soldier has a family that also serves and sacrifices more than most people can ever imagine.
One of the companies in our husband's battalion hosted a scavenger hunt for all of the companies. This works well for the three of us since each of our husbands are in different companies.
We didn't know what to expect. We got there and had to wait a gazillion minutes to get to started. We refused to be separated because we all rode in one car, brought one camera and well we didn't know anyone else. Everyone else was all buddy buddy with everyone so we were alright.
We misunderstood the rules. There were 35 clues/points of interest to find. We had an hour and a half to find as many as possible. The problem was that we thought we had to take a picture at each place to prove we were there and not just using the phone book or calling to get answers to the clues. We were wrong. The winning team did just that. They used their maps and phone book and just answered the questions. They got all 35 done. We got 21. But we got out and took pictures of the whole team (less the camera person) at every clue.
They may have won but we laughed and had so much fun and now we have pictures to remember it all! It wouldn't have been as much fun to not jump out of a still moving vehicle to run and pose for pictures. Now would it have been as much fun to not run uphill in mud boots laughing so hard just to find an answer to a clue. We got back and were wearing our trash bags poncho's and were soaking wet. Everyone else looked dry and thought we were nuts. It was only a few minutes later that we found out they knew we didn't need to get out at every stop.
OH well! Here are the pictures!
We hit the door running!
We laughed and laughed and laughed and the two bigger kids that got to come along had a good time too once they started jumping out at every stop with us!
Go ahead, point, laugh make jokes......we did!This was my post from one year ago today. Today we celebrated two of my favorite little girls (show below broken hearted) birthdays. This year we celebrate knowing that there is an end in sight! On our one year anniversary of our battalions deployment and our families being seperated we know that a few short months from now it's all going to be over with and we will have our soldiers back!
Remember to be grateful for every moment you have with your families!
So here it is. From May 2, 2008:
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Have you ever stopped long enough in your life to look around. To really really look at other people? Have you wondered how much families really care about each other and how much love they have to give? I often see people and think to myself (or maybe to my friends) how unlikely a couple looks together and wonder how their life really is behind closed doors. Or have you seen that group of teenage kids walking down the street all in black with crazy hair and every possible visible pierced part of their body shining with metal studs and wondered where on earth their parents were when they did that? Maybe Dad had spent four years of their teenage years deployed and Mom was wise enough to choose battles that protected their safety and let them make harmless stupid mistakes that they might regret later.
Today we did this at a time when families were at their most vulnerable. Having to watch your soldier form up for that last formation before being whisked away on crowded buses to an airport to board a plane with an M16 strapped to their back. Their weapon now sleeps beside them where their wives and children should be. How often do you turn your child away and send them back to their beds at night so you can sleep comfortably in yours without them kicking you all night long or waking up with their feet in your nose. And without thinking about that child who just said goodbye to their daddy (or mommy) for what seems a lifetime to them and could very well be a lifetime. How many times does a soldier have to go to war and come back alive before the statistics grab him too?
This is our life. This is what we do. And some of you may say "well you signed up for this is your choice, you knew what you were getting yourself into." For those of you who say that please click the little x at the top right corner now. For those of you who understand that we didn't sign up for this because we love being broke, alone and worried. We love our country. We love our freedom and we need to know that when we leave this Earth we did our part in making sure that someone else lived a better, safer life because of our sacrifice. Our soldiers fight for people who don't care who they are and don't want to hear the horror stories or pay their medical cost for a lifetime of pain. For people more worried about money then ensuring that their great great grandchildren will also be able to be free. Our guys don't want to go to war. They don't want to leave us behind but it's their duty. They feel it's what they should do for all of us left behind. They hate being away, they hate the life they lead while they are gone. They hate seeing their battle buddy wounded. And yet they do all of this to be hated by so many people who just don't get it.
We get it. We really do. We'd love for the war to end tomorrow and our guys to come home. But we know there is a reason. They believe in what they are fighting for. They are protecting us from more attacks on US soil by taking out the bad guy on his own sand (not much soil from the pictures I've seen).
Some of the younger kids have no idea what's happening. They are the lucky ones.
We'll send them letters, care packages filled with all of their favorite non-perishable items. Pictures, video's, phone calls and emails is what we have and we're so grateful for every bit of it! Civilians get contracted out to go to Iraq and Afghanistan and make at least twice as much money without all of the dangers. The military is like the legal way to have cheap labor. Instead of sweatshops they hang out in the desert dodging bullets. They do it anyway. It's okay because they have a support system. They have families at home who love them and miss them.
Deployments make us stronger. We learn how to be single parents. And while many civilians are too it's different. You see we have husbands, we just can see them or touch them. We still have to take care of them from afar. We send them the things they need, listen when they need to vent, take the brunt of their frustration backed by professions of undying love for us and their children. We have to try day after day to explain to little ones that Daddy is helping the good guys (not fighting the bad guys unless you want to battle with nightmares). We live far from family and can't call for a babysitter whenever we want because the people we'd want to see are in our boat. We can't afford to travel to see our parents and have help from family very often and when we do we have to plan it around school and R&R and God knows what.
Ok I'm done complaining. I love my life. I love my soldier. I hate that he's been gone for almost two months and will come home only to have to leave for a gazillion more but I love my freedom. My kids love their Daddy and miss him but it's all worth it in the end because it has to be. This is what we do.
I took this picture of my soldier and little guys a few weeks ago before he left for Maryland because I knew that like my close friends in the pictures above that my turn is next in a few short weeks.
Watching Him Walk Away
And here I go for all my girls.........HOOAH!
It's 2:30 in the morning but tomorrow brings another busy day and I just have to get these pictures I took edited. I'm not posting this blog till tomorrow though so I'll come back and add some pictures for you!
It's 2am on Sunday and I got the pictures added and now I can click publish. Girls thanks for letting me into your lives to invade your space and take pictures of the worst moments we can imagine but need to hold onto so badly. I love you guys and I know you'll be clicking away when I'm red faced and miserable. Thanks for being you!
We look good in trash bags don't we? I almost suffocated putting it on though, very scary! 