No surprise

We were going to go to the Waco Zoo but it is a bit chilly today to be outside. So we just ran some errands today and hopefully will able to go to dinner tonight or tomorrow.
Hope you have a great weekend as well!

Surprise

I worked today so I could take tomorrow off. Lance has planned some sort of surprise! I am excited! He will be leaving for Airbourne school the week of March 4 so we are trying to spend some time together. He just got back from being in the field for a week so we haven't seen much of each other this year. He has been super busy with funerals, counseling here and out of town and having to have the 24 hour Chaplain phone and the 24 hour funeral phone. So we are ready for some quality time together. The weather is suppose to be decent so that will be nice if it actually decent. I will let you know what the surprise is later. If Lance had a blog maybe he would post the surprise....................maybe............maybe not! This Sunday will be his last Sunday preaching in chapel at Fort Hood. He is excited to move on to the next phase of his life in the Army. He is excited to join the 5th Group at Fort Campbell.
Have a great weekend.

Friendship

I spent some quality time with some friends this weekend. God sends just the right people into my life at just the right time. Lance has been in the field for 8 days and I just needed some girl time! I had a 3 day weekend from work and I just enjoyed being around friends. I feel so refreshed. It could have been partly because we are going through EKG at our church and the sermons hit home to me about being a Kingdom worker. I also laughed with friends until my cheeks hurt, which is always such a blessing to me. So thank you friends! I am so blessed.

Women's Retreat 

From the One who loves you...always

"For God so loV ed the world,
That He gA ve
His onL y
BegottE n
SoN
T hat whosever
Believeth I n Him
Should N ot perish,
But have E verlasting life."
John 3:16

Just another day....

at the office. Except I was able to eat lunch with my wonderful husband. That made my day! He is going to the field this afternoon and will return home on Friday. The weather is beautiful...a whopping 80 degrees and it is February! We were able to walk Simba yesterday and had a great time in the sun. It is quite a pleasant change to have sunshine! The youth did an awesome job at the youth led service last night. We have an awesome youth group. The 27th will be our last day at chapel. Lance will go to jump school around March 8th. He graduates on April 1st. Our household goods will be packed on April 7th & 8th. So we are heading to Fort Campbell mid April. We may stop somewhere for a couple of days for a little R&R. We probably won't get any days off before he is deployed July 1st. So the next few months will go by fast for us.
Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you know you are loved.

Wait for me! 

Game Time! 

Pamala Kathy Donna Kathy 

Judy 

Lisa playing Guesstures 

Visiting 

Having some fun at the Women's Retreat 

Donna is a vessel used by the Potter 

Sharon 

SBC Women's Retreat 

SBC Women's Retreat 

Women's Retreat 

Lance & Shawna 

Escort

Lance will be escorting the Deputy Chief of Chaplains General Jerome Haberek around today through Thursday. He has to pick him up from the Austin airport and then escort him around. So I won't be seeing him much this week. Tonight I have a unit coffee. They are fun to get together to visit with the other spouses of Lance's unit. I have to work Weds-Fri this week due to another lady taking vacation. So it will be a busy week for me. I am cleaning today. Hopefully if I clean, someone will come and look at our house to buy. We haven't had any lookers in a couple of weeks. A lot have called about it to the realitor and all our flyers were taken. They had to come and refill our bin. So that is a good sign.
We are filling out more paperwork for the adoption. I don't know if they just come up with things to fill out but this is a never ending story. We don't see the light yet nor do we have a definite date when we will be going to China.
Have a blessed week.

Awesome Retreat

We had a great time at the retreat this weekend. 23 ladies attended. Lance calls it a Hen Party and believes we just sit around and gab. Oh how he is so wrong. God was moving in many hearts this weekend and it was so awesome to be a part of God working. The retreat center was perfect and so beautiful. They decorated with a lot of moose and looked like a place you would find in Montana.
Donna did an outstanding job of communicating to us what God had her to say. You can view her ministry web site at

http://www.foreverfamilyministries.com/

She ended up leaving yesterday because her mother-in-law was on her death bed. Her family needed her there. Moma Nell passed away at 6:10pm last night, just 3 hours after Donna had arrived home. It was like Moma Nell was waiting for Donna to get there before passing away. It is so amazing how that works.

God is so good and I am thankful I am a part of His work. I pray I can take what I learned about being a vessel that He can use for His glory and be a faithful steward for Him.

May you have a blessed week and focus on the goodness He has in store for your life.

What an amazing day....in Iraq?

Received this email from a friend of a soldier deployed to Iraq (Sadr City).

Family and Friends,
I hope you are having a great Sunday morning where ever you may be in America. I want to thank each of you for the pride you feel for America and for the support you extend to those of us who serve her. Today I may be the proudest I have ever been of being and American Soldier. As I walked the streets of Sadr City today, I saw the best the human spirit has to offer. Despite the many cultural and religious differences between our soldiers and the local people, I saw men, women, and children genuinely ecstatic and thankful because they had tasted the first morsel of freedom. Don't believe any negativity that may be in the news today. There were a few very isolated incidents in which Iraqi patriots lost their lives, but freedom and democracy moved forward despite it. You may have seen on the news that there was a rocket attack in Sadr City today. That was in our area of operations and I went there after the incident. The rocket hit about 40 meters from a polling station and killed 3 adults and a child, destroyed 7 vehicles and damaged buildings. Despite that, the people cleaned up the mess and continued to flood into the polling center to vote. While neighborhood members mopped the blood into the gutter, others continued to enter the station to take advantage of their new found freedom. The mother of the dead child voted, despite her grief. Elsewhere in our brigade's sector two suicide bombers attacked polling stations. People were killed and injured, but the polling stations remained open.
I walked with my patrol today throughout Sadr City, down the very same street on which I was almost killed on the 7th of September, and the people thanked us for providing them the security they needed to see this day through. It was heart-warming, it made me full of pride for our soldiers and their efforts, not just this week but since this all began. It convinced me, maybe for the first time, that this is genuinely worth it. It absolutely convinced me that David Heath, Brandon Titus, Henry Risner, Yoe Aneiros, David Waters, Mark Stubenhofer, and the over 1000 others did not die in vain. It convinced me that SGT Mendoza lost both of his legs in the pursuit of a higher purpose. I am assured that the 91soldiers from this task force that have bled in the streets of this city did so in order to make this day a reality. Today exceeded my wildest expectations, and while much remains to be done, a seed is planted, and I don't believe any amount of tyranny and terror can thwart its growth. Today as I watched men and woman swell with joy and pride as they showed me the indelible ink on their finger that proved they had voted, I developed new hope for the future. It took today, made possible by nearly two years worth of blood, sweat, and tears of both Iraqis and coalition forces, to make the hope for freedom a reality and paint genuine hope for the future in both the minds of our soldiers and that of the people of Iraq. I don't know if deep down, anyone ever thought today could happen. IT DID!
There will be more violence and deaths, and there is so much more work to do here that on any given day it seems overwhelming. Today convinced us who witnessed it, beyond any doubt, that the cause is just and the cost and effort are worth it. Today was an amazing day for Iraq, for America and her allies, and for the world. As I type this I am nearly brought to tears by the pride I feel for the flag that adorns my right sleeve, and for all that it stands for. God Bless you all, God bless the seeds of freedom, and God Bless America!
John

Friends

Some people make the world more special just by being in it.

Thanks for being in it!