How are we doing?

Many people have asked how I'm doing and the answer honestly is, "I'm doing great!  I feel my self gaining a testimony of praying for strength to go through hard things and the prayers of others.  I feel the strength of the Lord with me and I know it's because of the prayers of others (yours and from being on the temple prayer roll...thanks Mom!) and because I KNOW my Heavenly Father hears my prayers.  I can feel it.  I know without His strength, this would be so much harder.  The night before Doug left, I could feel my heart breaking and silently kept praying for strength to endure the pain of missing him...I was a wreckage (as my friend Liz would put it)...could barely intake air as I was sobbing uncontrollably.  The next morning I literally woke up with such an abundance of strength, confidence in my abilities to mother these 3 boys, and with faith in the Lord that we can go through this trial and it will all be fine, that I was able to say "See you in 9" with a smile and without the floodgates re-opening.  That evening the boys found me dancing to "Born brave" while making dinner (thanks Mom for Katherine Nelson's newest cd)...it's a great theme song for the next 9 months...and for life.  

The boys are doing well too.  Some occurrences this week have been:

1. Boys were very irreverent in church our first Sunday without dad, so they taught FHE Monday night on Reverence which ended in a dance party to "I like to move it move it."  

2. Cookies, Cakes, and oh the calories I'm consuming as friends have thoughtfully brought over some tasty treats hoping to bring me some extra Love =).

3. Oreo alarm system...I set our house alarm system every night and so far it's gone off the last two mornings as Colton has snuck downstairs, climbed up into the highest cupboard to sneak oreos, which the motion detector senses.

4. Found a cleaning angel to help me around the house as my landlord decided to announce a house inspection at 8:30pm that he'd be there at noon the next day...how I LOVE amazing Visiting Teachers!!!

5. Colton "Mom!...I'm all messy!"  He cries as he threw up all over himself Thursday night.  So far no one else has spent the night vomiting...hopefully that's a heaven sent blessing. =)

6. First of many movie nights. We watched Dr. Suess' The Lorax and had a slumber party in my room Friday night.

7. Felt the Spirit numerous times with my boys, but especially as I've been snuggling with them at night and they each fight over who gets to snuggles closest with Mom.  I cherish the moments when they lay still and hear me sing some of their favorite primary songs, "I like to look for Rainbows" and "I feel my Savior's love"...reminds me of the great faith I had as child in our Heavenly Father's plan.  I feel so blessed to feel comforted through the Holy Ghost that Doug is and will be kept safe.  

I think the hardest part for Doug was saying waving goodbye to Jax and Tal as they drove away in the bus to school.  His dad reached out to comfort him as a father who knows what it's like to say goodbye to your kids for a long time.

  Doug's Mom was quite emotional that day.  It was so sweet to see the love she has for Doug.

 These pictures are to remind me to "Dance in the Rain"....remember my goal for my 30's.

Colt thought Dad's gun was pretty cool.

 I had the thought the other day:  some people go on mission trips to Haiti or Guatemala for 2 weeks to help those who need medical assistance...this is kind of like that.  Doug will be serving the soldiers on the front lines, providing dental care (more like getting them out of their dental emergencies- PAIN) so they can go forward and do their job in defending our country's freedom and helping another nation.  He gets to do be a dentist in a foreign land, with 2 guns strapped to him, all while camping...doesn't this sound up his alley?  =)

Sunday in Afghanistan

   The sun slowly inched toward the west as seven of us gathered in the chapel. Dress was multicam uniforms or PT uniforms. Pews made from 3/4" plywood made neat rows for us to sit in.  We placed our weapons on the pew, the floor or left them on our person.  CPT Bates stood and organized the meeting, "Could I get a couple of volunteers for the opening and closing prayers? Who wants to bless? Pass?" and so on until we were ready to begin.  A laptop provided accompaniment for our hymns, sung by seven soldiers with varying degrees of ability but all with total conviction. I could hardly choke out a prayer as we began the meeting, not sure why other than I knew the spirit was there with us.  Matt 18:20 says, "For where two or three are ^agathered ^btogether in my ^cname, there am I in the ^dmidst of them." I felt His presence there with our small number. 
   We then had the sacrament blessed and passed with a moment of silence following for our reflection.  It was weird not having the sounds normal to us; kids talking, people shifting in their seats or the random cell phone during the sacrament, but we all appreciated the moment to be able to worship and renew our covenants. 
  The lesson was based on the talk by Sister Dalton from the October 2011 conference entitled "Love their Mother".  We discussed the teaching points and how they applied to us.  All in all everyone contributed and all were edified.  What a unique experience!  Emotions were near the surface for many of us as we shared our testimonies and taught each other.  It was a great church experience.  I look forward to enjoying those moments with my fellow soldiers deployed here in this remote corner of the world.