Me so proud!

Here he is! My brother is being awarded with a very prestigious military award, and you can read about it here. It's the Douglas MacArthur leadership award. Rock on Rob! The article talks about why he was given the award - from his stellar leadership capabilities with his soldiers to "being at the tip of the bayonet" (I could go without hearing about that part) to earning the trust and respect of the local Afghans. Me so proud. Okay, I'm done gushing now.

Somethin' to celebrate!

I'm so proud! My big brother was just named as one of this year's 13 Army officers to receive the prestigious Douglas MacArthur leadership award! He's hoping the Army will let him attend the award ceremony at the Pentagon this spring, but he's pretty well in demand right where he is now. Anyhow, cheers! Well done, Rob! I've always been proud o' ya, but now I know other people are too!

Talked to Rob

For the first time in 12 months, I talked to Rob yesterday. Rob's my brother, and he's stationed in Afghanistan, doing some amazing things so that we - here in the US - can sleep safely.

I had a 20 minute conversation with him on the phone, and it was truly the highlight of the month for me. I got my first 'personal' email from him last week - he usually just sends one mass email once every 4-6 weeks to let everyone know that he's doing well and tell us about the weather. There isn't much more he can say. But, he sent me an email last week, and then yesterday he called my parents. And, thanks to our little road trip, he got me instead. Oh happy day!

I also talked to his beautiful wife the previous day. She returned from deployment to Afghanistan last week, and is having to manage the struggles of repatriation alone. But it was so nice - to get a personal email from Rob, then to talk to his wife and welcome her home after 12 months of service, then to actually have Rob to myself on the phone for nearly half an hour! There's something about that sibling bond. It doesn't matter how much time has passed, we'll still be each others' biggest fans day in and day out.

Changes

What do you do when everything in your life seems to be shifting? What do you do when you were perfectly happy when the ground beneath your feet was solid but suddenly starts to quake? Change comes in lots of forms, that's why there are so many words to describe it - progress, turmoil, adjustment, development, modification, evolution... Some of them imply positive change, others - negative.

I don't think we can describe the change in our lives until we're on the other side of it. At one point it might seem like progress, then we get through it and realize that it actually caused turmoil. Or vice versa.

I'm in a place where the ground seems to be shifting beneath my feet. All I can do is hold on and enjoy the ride. I don't know where the shift will take me, but I can rely on my stoic yet inspiring husband to be the constant in all of this, and that reminds me how very blessed I am.

As I look into the relatively near future, I see that major change might be on the horizon and I feel entirely insecure. I cling to the promises I know though - "I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope." Why is that all I see is calamity? There's a lot to be said for stepping forward with faith. Moses did it. God didn't separate the waters of the Red Sea until the Israelites stepped into the water. Surely all they could see was calamity. But at least they had a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. Where are my pillars? How do I know I'm going in the right direction? There's a lot to be said for stepping forward in faith. I just hope I can muster that faith and guide my children well into what looks like calamity. To alter a saying, it looks like calamity, it sounds like calamity, but the right answer must be Jesus!

Here's to hoping I can step out in faith. On my knees today, seeking His will.

We survived!

All 3 of us survived the road trip, we're safe and sound at Grandma and Papa's house, and the kids are loving it. And, we made it in a record 7 1/2 hours! Yeah!

Road trippin'

I'm heading out with my kids today - 8 hours of driving to spend a week and a half with the grandparents. Just me, a 2 year old and a one year old, in the car for 8 wonderful hours! (Hubby's on a business trip traveling around Europe - rough life, right?)

Mama's intuition

Thank goodness for that little voice inside! Whether you call it a sixth sense, pure intuition, or the whisperings of the spirit, when it speaks, Listen! I noticed that my little girl, Bean, was coughing at night and at naptime. There can be plenty of explanations for that, but something inside me said it was mold. ('eww, gross!') So, the mold inspector came out, we dropped nearly $500 for that, as soon as the suspicion came we moved Bean into Little Man's room.

Some thought I was overreacting - was it really worth moving Bean based on a suspicion, when neither child sleeps well when they're together? And is a mold inspection really worth nearly $500? I'm so glad I did it. There's toxic mold ('eww, gross!') growing in the bay window under Bean's room, and the gases are building up in her room. The moral of the story: Always trust your instinct.

So now, Bean and Little Man will be roommates until the work is done. And the work entails sealing off the area with some sort of 'bubble,' ripping out the ceiling, and then ripping out as much of the wall as necessary to eradicate the mold ('eww gross!).



What really upsets me is that we had 3 contractors come out during the summer to look at the bay window and tell us if there was a leak of some sort or water coming in from somewhere. All 3 contractors showed us different 'possible' problems. Of all 3 of them, no one noticed the gaping hole where the siding wasn't sealed to the bay window. The mold inspector found it. And the gaping hole is so big that you can see into it, from the top of the window to the base of the house. Shouldn't a professional notice something like that?

Woo Hoo! Welcome home C.!

I'm stoked! My sister-in-law, C., comes home this morning from Afghanistan! She's been flying Black Hawk helicopters there for about 12 months, to the day, and in 2 hours her plane will touch down. Unfortunately I can't be there to welcome here - Ft. Drum in New York is a long way away, and it's somewhat inaccessible with the weather the way it is now.

C.'s husband, my brother, is still in Afghanistan, and will be until some time this summer. I'm sad that they're not together, but I'm very happy that C. is home (or will be in 2 hours).

Woo hoo! One home, one more to go.

The War on Terror and other such things

After a 2 week blog hiatus here I am writing 3 posts in one day. I feel the need to comment though on this whole war thing though. It hits home. The day after the state of the union address I found an unwelcome message in my inbox. My brother (who I always welcome emails from) was notifying us that his deployment to Afghanistan (he's in his 11th month there with the 10th Mtn., and he already served a year in Iraq with the 101st when troops first went in) had been extended until June-ish.

Now, his unit is doing some amazing things that no one else in the army is doing, or has ever done to my knowledge. They're out, not on a base, living in a river valley doing some really inventive stuff - from winning the hearts and minds of Afghani civilians by building schools and giving them protection, to searching for Taliban forces and providing security to contractors in the region. What he and his soldiers are doing is pretty amazing, but also highly dangerous.

We were told weeks ago not to send any more mail - he'd be coming home soon. Then wham, a week later, we get this email from him that he's there longer. My first instinct was to lash out at our Commander In Chief. Thank you, El Presidente, for deciding to further risk my brother's life. But, after actually using my head and looking into the issues a bit further, and after hearing Rob's take on it, I think we need to stay the course. Yes, our troops are stretched. Yes, they're underpaid and undersupported. But pulling them out of the hot zones will not make our country or the world a safer place to live. Here's an excerpt from Rob's email:

I just want to say up front that we all believe this to be the right decision on the part of the President and the SECDEF. We have known for awhile that this was being considered, and in an effort to hold on to the peace that we have been fighting for over the past 11 months this is the right choice. We know the area, we will stay in place while our follow on unit, the 82nd, will move somewhere else. So for now, things will stay as they are.

In the mean time, keep all of our soldiers in your prayers. This will be a difficult time for our soldiers, but their strength of will and sense of duty is truly an amazing thing to behold on a daily basis. At the end of the day, we will be fine. As a matter fact, we will do very well over here and the company will continue to bond and get stronger through our continued deployment.

Thanks to all of you for your support up to this point and I look forward to it continuing over the next few months! Take care.

While most of us here stateside have varied opinions about the war and how soon our troops should come home, support for the war is decreasing. There are so many people who give monologues on what we should do. But talk to the troops. Talk to the ones who have come home or the ones who are still on the ground, and see what they have to say about the situation. Every soldier I've talked to who's served in Iraq says that sending more troops is 100% the right thing to do. They're not talking out of selfish motives. More troops in Iraq (or Afghanistan) means more time away from their families, more missed birthdays and Christmases, more missed births, and frankly they put their lives on the line every day they spend in combat. And they're the ones saying, yes, let us do our jobs.

In our day to day lives, that means a couple things. One, perhaps we (we consisting of those of us who have not been to Iraq or Afghanistan in recent months) should stop pretending we know what to do. And two, let's show a little more support for the men and women who put their lives on the line daily and sacrifice time with their families for our greater safety.

Return to tradition

Soon, very soon indeed, our family will be welcoming a third generation into our home. Really, the second and third generations are already here - we'll be welcoming the first generation to join us. Eugene's parents will be moving in with us as soon as we can get them here. Their paperwork was approved, and it's just a matter or getting everything in order on our side.

This is the way it should be, and the way it used to be ages ago in this country, but still is in other places. There are practical reasons for it - more hands on the farm means greater productivity (not that we live on a farm though...); the older generations can pass down valuable knowledge to the younger generations - how to nurse a baby, how to make sarmale (cabbage rolls, for all you non-Romanian speakers out there)... and there are relational reasons. How enriching it will be for the kids to live with their parents and their grandparents! In the US today, most kids don't even grow up living with both of their biological parents. How blessed ours will be that they'll be under the same roof with their parents and grandparents!

Not only that, but I'll be able to get my 'mompreneur' groove on. It's perfect - income opportunity, but flexible enough that I can still be the Cozonac taxi service (and rock Sofia at naptime, and be around for Liam's first word, all that fun stuff!). And yet, my mother-in-law can be responsible for the kids most of the day - they'll actually have to speak Romanian, instead of just co-existing with it. And this will be great for my in-laws - everyone knows that being around kids keeps you young. They'll have such fun getting to know the kids. This is really the perfect thing for us.

I'm so proud!

For those of you who don't know, my brother, Capt. Robert Stanton is in Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division (as is his wife, helicopter pilot Capt. Casey Martinez). Over the past week, Rob has had his picture and voice broadcast across America. He's been on ABC world news, Nightline, had his picture on AP newswire, and been quoted all over the place, even with one interview available in audio online! It's been awesome to see and hear him so much when he's so far away! He's done really well with his interviews - so well that Eugene thinks he should go into politics ( and I do too!). So, in another couple of years, when Robert Stanton is running for election for some local post, get out and vote for him! (Yes, I realize it's silly to campaign for someone who isn't running, but the time will come...)

GIs hunt al-Qaida in Afghan mountains
Restraint even facing death
Small fight to build an Army