SOS Graduation!

James is SOS complete! They held a formal graduation ceremony this morning to honor the 699 officers who completed the course, and specifically all those who received awards. James did not receive any individual awards, but his squadron was named the top one out of all 6 squadrons, and he made a unique contribution by singing the national anthem in the class choir! Proud of all of our friends for this accomplishment! Now it's time to back up and head back to our (new) normal life and work schedule!

James and the class choir singing the National Anthem! (Video Below)

http://youtu.be/bd41aCwGwzU

100%

 

Large auditorium full of graduates who stood to be recognized for various achievements

One of the other spouses in our flight got the top spouse award! Yay for stay-at-home dads!

Proud of my hubby!!

SOS Flight Farewell Dinner

Well, SOS has all but come to an end. Tomorrow morning is the graduation ceremony, and then everyone will be going their separate ways. So we all decided to get together for dinner tonight as a final hurrah. We were kind of amused that the group decided we should eat at a Japanese hibachi grill named after the city where the chapel youth group did all of their mission trips over the past two summers. As a rule, we've been avoiding most Asian food while in the States. But this was a fun trip down memory lane and gave us an opportunity to share a little about the Japanese culture with the other people in the flight. The only bad thing about the meal is that it made me seriously homesick for a home we're not returning to... =^( Oh well. New adventures await!

the chef cooking our meal on a grill in front of us

yummy food!!

28 Week Baby Update

Well, we have arrived at the start of my third trimester! I don't have a whole lot of news since my last post. The one big thing is that I had my blood glucose test on Monday to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes. Thankfully, all of my tests came back clean and normal. (That's a big praise as I keep craving sweets and it would be hard to completely cut that out!) The baby's heart beat also sounds strong and normal. I'm measuring a little big (I should be about 27/28 and instead I'm measuring 30). It's not outside the realm of normal but something to keep an eye on. She also said that I'm still on track for a healthy amount of weight gain but recommended I start watching my calories a little more closely since I had gained a little over the standard 1 lb a week since my last appointment. That should be manageable.

Over all, things are still going smoothly. My prenatal yoga class has really helped me stretch and support the extra weight. I will need to find something similar when we arrive in Osan. Our little guy is very active and enjoys kicking me several times a day. He seems to enjoy (or is at least stimulated by) loud music and sound. I'm still hungry all the time but I need to be cautious about what I eat. Not only do calories count, but anything too spicy or greasy gives me crazy heartburn. Our long roadtrip and flight out West over the next week will be a challenge, but I'm prepared. It will be a big relief to arrive in Osan and know that we are home and have access to the doctors who will deliver the baby if anything happens.

Coping With Unwanted Input

As soon as I got pregnant and started sharing the news, people were eager to pass along any advice they could to get us through the next 9 months, not to mention the years of child-rearing to come. At first, the advice was welcome. Who am I kidding? I don't know what I'm doing! But now, I'm finding that some of the unsolicited advice or input, especially from well-meaning strangers, is more frustrating than helpful.

For the most part I've been able to filter out anything that doesn't apply to us. I smile and thank them for their advice and then file that away in the discard bin of my brain. But I must admit, I've had the following conversation with so many well-meaning folks that it's starting to get to me (no joke, I've started counting and it's happened at least 7 times in the last month):

Stranger: "Aww, when is your baby due?"
Me: "August 1st."
Stranger: (stares me up and down in shock) "August? Are you having twins?"
Me: "Nope. Just one big boy!"
Stranger: "Oooh, honey. There is no way you'll make it to August."

I already feel like I'm huge. (Or, at least, that my belly is huge.) I don't need random Southern grannies rubbing it in every time I step outside our hotel room. Even our friends and acquaintances who have a little more tact can't help commenting on how much I've grown between meetings. I'm not just bothered by the references to my rapidly swelling waistline. I know the main reason my bump is so striking is because the rest of me is still so tiny (something most other pregnant women wish for). But it feels a bit like a spiritual attack to have people constantly saying they don't think I'll make it to my due date.

Let me explain. After getting married, I was unsure whether or not we should try to have a baby naturally. For years, I was completely OK with either not having kids or adopting. Between my spinal fusion, tiny frame, and frequent illnesses, I just wasn't confident I'd be able to carry a baby to full term. In the last year, God's done a lot to help me trust Him in this area and has increased my confidence in my body's ability to carry a child. But I admit that a big prayer request since I took that pregnancy test was for His help in carrying the baby till he's fully formed and ready to be born. So you can see why this comment puts me on edge.

Thankfully, James has helped keep me grounded and reminds me constantly that it's not what they think that matters. They don't know what will happen. If anything, this gives us more incentive to pray for and work toward a healthy, full-length pregnancy. That way, He gets the glory for doing something the world views as impossible.

If you'd like to join us in praying for a full and healthy pregnancy, and for mental and emotional protection for me as I continue growing, I'd appreciate it. After all, I may look like I'm about to pop, but we've still got about 10 weeks to go!

Nesting Without a Nest

We have enjoyed our extended time in the States, but I am more than ready to return to Asia. Part of that may be that I am so over living out of a suitcase. We've been homeless for over 2 months now. Part of that may be that I'm tired of the slow Southern pace and ready for Asian efficiency (at least when it comes to customer service). But another big part is probably that the "nesting instinct" is starting to set in and I have no nest to prepare for our little guy!

Since I can't work on setting up the nursery and preparing our home, I've been focusing on mental organization and lots and lots of shopping! It seemed like a great idea to stock up on essentials and outfits that would be difficult to find in Asia at the time I swiped my credit cards/gift cards. But now that we're preparing to leave Montgomery, we've got 6-9 boxes that need to be shipped. =^/ Ah well, this is a normal part of international military moves!

Below is a photo of about half the damage I've managed to do. Can't wait till we have a dresser to store this stuff in and a little baby to try them on! Only a week and a half left till we arrive in Osan! (But who's counting?)

SOS Flight Baby Shower

On Tuesday night, James' SOS flight insisted on throwing us a small baby shower at a local Mexican food joint. I really didn't expect them to give us anything, but they wanted to. Goes to show what an awesome class we were blessed with. As you can see below, they spoiled us with a tub full of gifts (literally!) Many of the items in there were from our registry so we've now made some good progress toward accumulating all the necessities for our little boy! I know I say this all the time, but it is no less true today than it was yesterday - we are very blessed!

Group photo before we all go our separate ways!

Historical Montgomery

We only have one more week left in Alabama! Time has certainly flown during our 2 month stint in the States. Over all I think we've done a pretty good job of staying busy and finding fun ways to spend our weekends. But most of our time here in the city of Montgomery has been focused on newer, consumer attractions like movies, shops and restaurants. I knew, from perusing tourist websites, that the city has some rich history as well. So we took our final Saturday here to explore some of the big historical sites. I'm really glad that we took the time to do this as it gave me a much greater appreciation for this city and its tie to the Civil Rights movement. In fact, I wish we would have taken this tour a lot earlier as I'm sure it would have affected my attitude toward the city and its Southern culture.

The first stop on our tour was the Rosa Parks Museum in downtown Montgomery. It was built on the site of her arrest in 1955. Now, I don't claim to have an in-depth understanding of the Civil Rights Movement. But the story of Rosa Parks is something I thought I knew pretty well. Oh, how wrong I was. I always thought her arrest was an event that happened in the middle of the Civil Rights movement. Sure, it was brave of her to refuse to give up her seat on the bus, but over all I never understood why it was such a big deal.

We did not realize that her arrest was actually the event that began the Civil Rights movement. We were also interested to learn that, of all the forms of racial segregation African Americans faced in mid-century Montgomery, the unspoken rules giving white passengers preferential treatment on city buses was the most humiliating. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, she was not only breaking social protocol, she was putting her own safety at risk. After her arrest, local leaders of the NAACP and black churches (including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) bailed her out and organized a 13 month boycott of the city bus system. It was really sad seeing the crazy lengths to which the white city officials went to prevent change and retain their control and "superiority." The museum did a great job of not only telling the story, but introducing us to many of the major players in the Civil Rights movement, and showing how this one event drew the nation's attention to the issue and inspired a non-violent revolution!

James and I were also very moved by the way the museum made sure to include the vital role Christianity played in the Civil Rights movement. They had a whole exhibit devoted to the epiphany Dr. King had late one night toward the beginning of the bus boycott. He had received hateful letters threatening to bomb his house if the boycott didn't stop. His fear for the safety of his wife and new baby girl forced him to reevaluate his faith and make it real. He sat down in his kitchen and prayed out loud, telling God that he wants to do what is right but needs guidance and courage, because he was beginning to lose confidence. Then he explained that he heard the voice of God saying, "Martin Luther, stand up for truth. Stand up for justice. Stand up for righteousness." This epiphany solidified his resolve and defined the non-violent, faith-based direction that he lead the movement. Very cool.

After that inspiring lesson from Dr. King about taking your faith seriously, we couldn't wait to go see the parsonage where he lived and the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where he preached. We thought it was kind of ironic that it was right across the street from the Alabama capitol building. One building representing the seat of white supremacy in the south, and the other serving as the birth-place of the Civil Rights movement. Crazy.

We saw these peace poles all over Asia. Very cool to find one next to Dr. King's church

After that, we checked out one other, unrelated historical site in Montgomery: the F. Scott Fitzgerald museum. We thought it was a timely lesson since there's a new movie based on The Great Gatsby coming out this weekend. What we learned about the Fitzgeralds was interesting, but sad. Typical story of a famous couple on top of the world spiraling into depression, drunkenness and marital dysfunction. But hey, at least now we can say we've been to one of the homes where they lived!

Over all, I'd say it was a successful weekend! We certainly learned a lot and have a greater appreciation for this city that served as our temporary home for two months.

One Year Bible Plan

One of the nice things about being here with James for SOS is all of the free time. It's allowed me to settle into a routine that includes regular, long quiet times with God in the morning. As a result, last week I wrapped up my 3rd trip through the Bible cover to cover and begin a new reading plan.

James and I both committed to reading through the entire Bible before we got married, and have continued regularly spending time in the word since then. With each pass through the Good Book, I've tried to change something up to prevent me from glossing over things due to familiarity. I usually use a different translation each time, and focus on different ways to engage with the material.

The first time I read through it, I went straight through it like a novel, just kind of taking in the lay of the land, so to speak. It was great, but I found myself zoning out during boring stretches and I know I didn't really absorb everything. So the second time I made sure to write down or highlight any verses that jumped out at me. That extra level of effort kept me more focused and ensured I didn't miss anything. This most recent time, I took it up a level and SOAP'ed my way through the Message paraphrase.

"SOAP" is an acronym we teach our teenagers to help them get more out of reading the Bible. In a journal, you write down the Scriptures that jump out at you as you read, Observe what the author was trying to say, Apply that lesson to your own life, and Pray that God will help you act on that lesson to promote spiritual growth and life change. If you haven't tried this Bible study method, I highly recommend it. It's so simple, and yet you will be amazed what God has to say to you personally, even in the most random passages of scripture.

I now feel like I have a good grasp on the content of the Bible. (I'm not saying I fully understand it all. Just that I'm pretty familiar with the flow of the Biblical narrative.) However, I often get confused about the historical timeline of the Old Testament. So the new reading plan I've begun takes you through the Bible in chronological order by date. Already, it has tripped me up a bit. Somehow I assumed I'd have to wait till after the pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible) before it started jumping around to tell the story historically. But 11 chapters into Genesis, we suddenly jumped to Job. I'd heard that Job was the first book to be written in the Bible, but that gave me a totally new perspective on the story. Job's relationship with and knowledge of God is pretty amazing when you realize he predated Abraham, the father of our faith!

Daily devotions have been an important part of James' and my walk with God, and we look forward to reading Bible stories to our son every night and hopefully helping him begin his Christian walk very early on!

Biscuits Game

 This past weekend was one of the first weekends we haven't had plans to travel or hang out with friends. Deciding what to do was a bit of a challenge since I was still coping with an injured and disabled arm. So we decided to take in a baseball game at the local minor league stadium. The Montgomery Biscuits took on the Birmingham Barons in the stadium downtown. Perfect spring weather, southern style stadium food, and great seats made for a very enjoyable experience. Between each inning they had some live entertainment on the field (which usually involved boy scouts from the crowd competing in little games and challenges for prizes). But occasionally the official team crew got up on top of the dug outs and threw fresh baked biscuits into the crowd. Very fun. The home team topped the night off with a 4-0 win, and an impressive fireworks display! Not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening in America!

A Scary Misstep

As I was walking through the parking lot on my way to observe James' flight as they worked through the Project X obstacle course, I was confronted with the full reality of my new, terrible, pregnancy-induced balance. Lately we've noticed that I am no longer aware of my feet. I keep tripping over shoes and things on the floor in our hotel room because I'm not watching where I'm going. (In all fairness, it's hard to be aware of your feet when you can't see them anymore.) This silly pregnancy trait became a big problem last Wednesday when I was scanning the field for my hubby instead of watching the ground in front of me and did not see the 2 inch rise in the pavement before me. I tripped, and teetered back and forth for a few scary seconds, trying to regain my balance. But it was no use. I went down - hard - in the parking lot. Thank God I was able to land on my knees and elbows and protected the baby from harm. But I seriously bruised both knees and got a nasty gash on my left arm.

Thankfully some other wives with small kids were walking through the parking lot at the time and had first aid supplies that they used to patch up my arm. Also, one of the women in James' flight is a labor and delivery nurse and gave me some peace of mind about the baby. (I did call my OBGYN here in Montgomery afterward to let them know and ask their opinion, but they confirmed what James' classmate said. Since the baby was moving normally and I wasn't bleeding, they thought he was fine.) Understandably, I was pretty shaken up afterward, but I stayed for a while to watch the group complete some of the obstacles. After all, we cleaned and patched up my arm and the baby was going to be OK, so why not?

Turns out we did not clean my wound thoroughly enough and it got infected. I could barely sleep that night due to the constant, burning pain and discomfort in my arm. In the morning when I removed the bandaids to change the dressing my eyes bugged out of my head. The whole elbow was swollen to the point that I couldn't really bend it, and the wound was oozing pus, warm to the touch, and surrounded with angry red skin which all pointed to a textbook case of infection. I called a friend to drive me to an Urgent Care clinic off base where they cleaned me up and gave me some pregnancy-safe antibiotics.

It's been an uncomfortable week as the pain and swelling have slowly decreased and the wound has healed. It was a scary close call, to be sure. But perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. First of all, it forced me to be much more cautious while walking around. Second, the nurses at the Urgent Care clinic taught me a lot about proper wound care. I was one of those kids who intentionally avoided risky situations and rarely got hurt, so I honestly don't know much about how to handle bumps, bruises and cuts. It's very important for me to know this stuff before we have a busy little boy!

It's been over a week, and my arm is doing much better. The baby is growing and kicking like crazy and I'm finally able to drive, type, and style my hair again. I'd take any amount of pain or injury if it meant keeping our little man safe. But here's hoping this pregnancy will be smooth sailing from here on out.

SOS Class Activities

During Squadron Officer's School, all captains going through the program are broken up into small groups called "flights" and assigned one instructor to guide them through the curriculum. This model allows for small group discussions, group problem solving exercises simulating real world leadership scenarios, and networking across career fields within the Air Force. James has been very blessed with a great flight. Everyone gets along really well, and they have been pretty successful in many of their tasks.

They also try their best to make spouses who are staying here feel included. They held a very nice spouse meet-n-greet at the start of SOS to tell us about the program, answer any questions we may have about what our spouses will be doing during training, give us some ideas of things to do in the local area, and provide an opportunity to make friends so we won't be too lonely. I've been incredibly blessed in that I already knew several spouses who are here with their husbands so I've never felt too isolated. But I can imagine how this would be a difficult experience for a wife who doesn't know anyone and doesn't have a car. Again, we have been very blessed.

The AF strongly encourages the people in each flight to get together socially outside of class to continue networking. They even elect one member of the class to serve as a social coordinator. We've gone out to eat multiple times, chatted over drinks at the O'Club on base, and planned some fun activities. My favorite was an international food potluck in the quad. Our social coordinator was born in Africa and is now a civilian contractor in Europe. James also has an officer from Afghanistan in his flight. This was a great opportunity for them to share a little of their cultural heritage with us. I made Japanese(ish) fried rice. There were several other delicious dishes and desserts as well. I was a little too occupied shoving food in my face to take pictures so I'll let you use your imagination.

Last week all spouses were invited to observe some of the "Project X" obstacle course/problem solving exercises. The flight is presented with a series of obstacles that they have never seen before, many of which are designed to simulate a real life problem they could encounter while deployed and in a tight spot on the ground. Then they have 15 minutes to work together to solve the problem. For example, they have to get their entire team and a heavy wheel barrow across a large pool of water with only a few concrete stepping stones scattered more than a leg's-width apart and three wooden boards. Sometimes they were successful, other times one or more team members ended up going for a swim and they had to start all over. I was impressed with how difficult each challenge was and how well they rose to the occasion. The solutions to each Project X obstacle are closely guarded but I was allowed to take a couple of photos. Here are a few showing James shimmying across a cable suspended over water to deliver a rope from one outpost to another so they could try and get a dummy representing an injured comrade across the gap without touching the water. Unfortunately, this was one challenge they did not successfully complete in time. =^/

I can't believe that we only have a little over a week left of this training course! Time has gone pretty quickly since we've been having a lot of fun. This is a good group of people and we will be sad to part ways. But I can't wait to head to Korea and begin the next chapter!

Family Reunion in Louisville

After the big weekend in Nashville was over, James drove back to Montgomery to continue his training, and I rode with my family up to Louisville, KY to visit my grandparents. It's been about 2 years since my last visit so I was very glad I had this opportunity to reconnect with them. It was a pretty low key week, which I honestly needed after so much excitement. We spent most of our time helping the grandparents with things around the house, eating and talking. Nate got to share his music with them, and they enjoyed seeing the video ultrasound of the baby and hearing about our hopes and plans for the next couple years in Korea. I often feel disconnected from my extended family while living overseas so it was also great hearing stories about what my aunts, uncles and cousins are up to. I hope that we will have another, larger family reunion around the holidays after the baby is born! Till then, I am thankful for good conversations and these family portraits!