A Good Weekend

It is Sunday night.  Thanksgiving weekend is coming to a close.  The girls and I had a great weekend at Richard's father's house in South Carolina, which we fondly refer to as Camp Davenport.  I'm a city girl.  I am.  There's no doubt about it.  I need Starbucks, Dean and Deluca, JCrew, Pottery Barn, Anthropologie, and lots of people and activity around me.  But there is nothing quite like a good weekend trip to the country to refresh one's soul.  We had all the Thanksgiving Weekend usuals ... catching up with cousins, jumping in the biggest leaf pile we could make, hay rides, hikes, bonfires, football, too much t.v., too much food ... and this year we even added rolling down the hill in a barrel and building a castle out of hay bales!  It is so nice for the girls to just have some good old fashioned fun.  We are very blessed that Richard's Dad and his wife gave up the city life to live the life they do now.  We are so blessed to have been close enough throughout the years to make a tradition of going there over of Memorial Day weekend and Thanksgiving Weekend.  It really is one of the only traditions we've maintained since Richard and I started dating almost 19 years ago.  It is very, very special to us and to our girls.    

Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things tomorrow.  Just weeks until I see my soldier again!  Gotta get focused with checking things off the "to do" list.  Now that we are certain it's going to happen, I've been praying a lot about those 14 days.  It's a challenge for us to balance a visit like this, no doubt. But I am starting to spend increasingly more time daydreaming about getting to talk to him face to face for the first time in three months and it's sweet to hear him getting excited too.  

Hope you all had a nice time of reflection over the Thanksgiving weekend!  May you carry the reminder of your many blessings into this week and those following.  

To God be the Glory!

Life

I  love the image above.  

Almost perfect ...

filled with anticipation ...

just a moment ...

life.

It is early morning in Afghanistan, but it's not just any morning.  This morning is Thanksgiving morning for thousands of American troops, my husband included.  Can you read that without tears welling in your eyes?  I can barely type it without tears not only welling in my eyes, but streaming down my face.  And they are not tears for me and the empty chair at our dining room table.  No, they are tears for my husband who volunteered, yes, but who still would so much rather be throwing the football with his Dad and taking long slow walks through the beautiful countryside with his family.  And that may not sound like that big of a deal.  And maybe it wasn't even to him prior 9/11 ... but it definitely is now.  

Two Davenport girls have birthdays in November.  

(and I know what all you military wives are thinking and yes, deployment rotation is correct!) 

Patterson is our second November birthday, but our first to be born in November.  I got pregnant with Richard after a deployment to the Philippines.  It was his first big deployment as a PSYOPer.  He left again shortly after I became pregnant with her for a two week trip.  The Wednesday prior to the Friday that he was supposed to return a fellow Officer arrived at our house to get more clothes.  Needless to say those two weeks turned into almost six months.  He was able to come home for two weeks of Thanksgiving leave (which we had to fight for and which we had to pay for) .  Patterson was born smack dab in the middle of those two weeks.  That deployment was a pivotal point in my life.  I learned with that deployment that being married to a Special Operations Officer meant to always expect the unexpected, that I was going to be without my husband more than I was going to be with him and that despite how big the hill was to climb, and despite how out of shape I was to climb it, God would always more than provide.  For those of you who know my Patterson, you are well aware of her zeal for living life to the fullest.  She is our little go getter, and the daughter Richard calls "110."  It should be no surprise that she is the only Davenport girl who was even too impatient to wait to be born!  Yes, I went into preterm labor with Patterson and going through the process of stopping labor was worse than any labor I've experienced (and trust me, I've got some stories!).  But the blessing of that moment was that I didn't have a number for Richard and  even if I would have, I wouldn't have called him ... what could he have done?  But to my surprise he felt something was up with me and when he didn't reach me at home, called the ER.  And sure enough, that's where I was.  I learned through that experience the sweetness of "oneness" that Richard and I share.  What assurance to know that he is never too busy to think of me and care for me.  

I love Thanksgiving.  I will miss my soldier this year.  He will miss us.  But we have so much to be thankful for.  In about a month we will be hopefully welcoming Richard home for a R&R.  

Life.

just a moment ...

filled with anticipation ...

almost perfect.

Happy to celebrate another year of life with our sweet Patterson! 

Thrilled to be celebrating Thanksgiving with Richard's family tomorrow.

Praying for Richard and all of our troops abroad as they celebrate alone and for our troops at home as they celebrate on R&R.

Praying for the families who carry on even though there hearts ache for the ones they love.  

And giving thanks for life ... for the joys and the aches that keep it real and keep our focus on the gifts that we have.  

Praying especially for a fellow Renegade soldier who was seriously injured this past week.  His will to survive blows me away.  I am so encouraged and humbled by his story and it is with utmost honor that our family lifts him up in prayer.

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

To God be the Glory.

Five

"You know why I like smiles?  Because they are beautiful." 

Kate, age 4

Katharine Semmes Davenport will celebrate her fifth birthday tomorrow. 

Our fourth daughter, born on Veteran's Day (observed) 2006 ... the very first Veteran's Day Richard observed as a Veteran.  

Kate.  Oh my Kate.  Whenever I even begin to feel down, she appears out of nowhere and gives me a hug.  Whenever Richard hugs me, she appears again out of nowhere and wedges herself between us.  

Kate has the biggest heart of any little kid I've ever seen.  Her teacher wrote to her last year, "Kate, you are a good friend."  Totally couldn't have described her any better myself.

I'm not going to be cliche and say that I can't believe it's been five years already!  No.  Honestly, I can't believe it's been only five years.  It seems like an eternity ago since you were born.  In five years you've lived in four houses, three states and have learned how to walk, talk, swim, write, whistle and swing by yourself!  I love your drawings,your inability to accept the negative (two strong traits you get from your Daddy) your fascination with George Washington and your acceptance that you cannot marry Trey because while he loves Jesus, he is still a Tennessee fan:).  

Happy Birthday to Kate the Great.  

Love you my sweet girl!! 

Proverbs 3:27

"Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act."

Today I got Parker and Patterson started on their math and english early. After we dropped off Kate and Olivia at school we headed out to gather up goodies to make stockings for the single soldiers in our Brigade.  If you're interested, here is the flyer with all of the information.  Basically, the goal is to make 1,000 stockings for our soldiers and mail them all out from Fort Bliss at the same time.  If you are interested, your help would be greatly appreciated!

 I have been mailing Richard packages since I was 19.  I absolutely LOVE it.  I always send extra, because there is always someone who has nothing.  So when I found out about this little project, I happily jumped right on it!!  It was a great thing for the girls to participate in and feel a little ownership in as well.  I always try to get them involved with the military any chance I can.  This is a part of who they are and I want them to appreciate the service around them as set apart and not as the standard.  I want them to remember the sacrifice made by so many and not just grow up being so close to it that they are numb to it.  (if that makes sense) I also make every effort to get my girls "doing for others" any chance they can as well.  My oldest recently said to me, "You know, it was always so confusing when I was little.  If I had a friend over I was told to let them choose because they were a guest.  And when I went to someone else's house you told me to do whatever my friend wanted because I was a guest."  :)  Funny the things they remember pondering when they were younger ...

Mailing these off in the morning.  Happy to have had the chance to be a light and hopefully let a soldier know that they are not forgotten.