Great News!

Bryon and I found out some fantastic news this past week. We have been praying since we found out Molly was on the way for the Lord to consider working in an early re-deployment for Bryon into His plans. His official re-deployment date was November 15th and Molly was scheduled to come October 10th. As you can see, that calculates to a month where Molly and I are here and Bryon would be away. While many military families have experienced this type of situation and while I knew it was very likely that this was the boat in which we must sail, Bryon and I felt in our hearts, that this was not the Lord's plan for us.

So we prayed and asked everyone we knew to pray that in some miraculous way, the Army would decide to let Bryon come home early. For those of you who are military families, wives, you know that negotiating with the army is futile so for most of the deployment I didn't allow myself to get my hopes up. We knew Bryon had a week of leave to take while he was in Mali, so we scheduled an induction date for October 3rd so that maybe he would be able to schedule his leave around that date and not miss her birth. (Fingers majorly crossed).

Well, the process of getting approval to come home early first started when Bryon's new boss arrived in Mali and scheduled a meeting with him. HE SAID (Bryon's boss) that he felt like Bryon needed to go home early and stay. That it was to Bryon's best interest and to the army's not to have to fly him home for leave, back to Mali and back home in a few more weeks before going home for good. Answer to prayer #1. I had secretly prayed that the idea for him to come home and stay would be suggested by someone other than Bryon. As much as Bryon wants to be here and knowing he was going to ask anyway, it was still a little hard for him to ask to end his assignment early. Military men have such a sense of duty and responsibility that none of us understand. I certainly didn't and I don't know if I still do understand it completely, but I'm definitely learning. So the Lord already blessed us beyond imagination by not only moving in Bryon's boss's heart to allow us to come home, but he heard my silent prayer, uttered only to the Lord, that it would be someone else's suggestion.

Soon thereafter, the idea was proposed back to the powers that be at Bragg and did not meet with any resistance. They simply took note of the request and would get back to us. Weeks after that (were up to last week now), we were told that Bryon was approved to come home and stay. We are still waiting to know the exact date of his re-deployment but we have total confidence in the Lord who has brought us this far will continue to see this through until the end. So often in the almost 6 months since Bryon has been gone, I have felt myself teetering on the line separating dispair and coping. Almost as if one little thing would push me over the edge. But through it all I have felt the presence of the Lord on an almost daily basis in may different ways (which I wont share here today). My prayers are still that the date Bryon comes home will be in time to be here for Molly's birth and that I wont have any problems which would make her have to come early. I will continue to pray those prayers knowing that I have nothing to worry about and that I am being looked after.

This week I've been scrapbooking our wedding from last December. I realized I had better get myself into gear before little Molly arrives and I want to scrapbook her birth and life. As I've been scrapbooking, I've realized in a powerful way, that when you are a child of God's you have nothing to worry about in this life. Truly, I don't know how people who don't know the Lord make it through this world with any sense of peace and purpose. 100% of my confidence in my future, my safety, Bryon's safety, our future plans, finances, our health, Molly, etc, all comes from my knowledge that I'm not in charge and that the One who is in charge has my best interests in mind. I am so thankful to you Lord, I don't know language sufficient enough to express my feelings so on my knees I beg for you to see my heart and know how much you are praised, loved and worshiped.

Thank you all for sharing in our exciting news. Three months or less and counting!