A New Year, A New Experience

This entry will be short but I promise to post more in the next day or so.

Cliff made it off fine for his mobilization and deployment. The goodbye was the hardest thing either of us have ever had to do, but God helped us get through it and we are now settling into our second week with Cliff starting his classes, and Caleb and I getting back into the swing of things here at the house. We have been able to talk to Cliff every day, and even have gotten to do video calls using our nifty webcams - Caleb and Cliff actually got to play tic tac toe and checkers last night online with each other! That was great, especially for Caleb who has been missing his daddy.

I think if there's anything this deployment has done up to this point, it has reinforced how we can't take each other for granted. We missed Cliff starting the day he left, and I know he is missing us as well. We are grateful for our family and we know God is going to grow and help all of us during this year apart. Something I try to remind people and now I will remind myself: God is in control - here at home, and even in Iraq!I will write more later and Cliff hopes to send some pics of his new "digs" for me to post this week as well. Maybe we'll even get Caleb involved.