And Another

Well the 4th soldier who was injured in the attack that killed our 3 soldiers last Saturday died last night. He was surrounded by his family. I didn't know him, but I pray he knew Jesus and pray he's at peace. Pray for this soldiers family.

We don't know when the memorial service for him will be, but I'm guessing early next week. I did get to chat with Chad tonight online and then he called. He was exhausted and I could hear it in his voice. He was up at 3:30 am and he didn't get back to camp after a mission until 9 pm, so it's been a very long day for him. We hung up right before 11 pm his time and he was heading to bed to get some sleep before he had to be up at 5 am.

I think a lot of people get that our soldiers, etc are in danger. What I don't think many realize is how often they go without adequate sleep. This deployment Chad's gotten quite a bit of sleep compared to last one. It was not uncommon for him to go without sleep for a couple days last time and it was not uncommon for him to get just a couple hours of sleep after being up for a couple days to only go back out on another mission and be without sleep for no less than 24 hrs sometimes longer. Although that's not happening with Chad personally this time, there are plenty of guys in his battalion and many others who this is happening to. Please pray that when they do get sleep it's good, deep, truly restful sleep. I am going to make sure when Chad firsts gets home that he gets back into a good sleeping habit with no less than 8 hrs every night. When he gets home, they'll have to return to work (going to briefings, turning things in, etc) for the first 7-10 days, then they're allowed to take leave up to 30 days. I have no doubt Chad will take all 30. He has a lot more than just 30 days of leave earned up, so he plans to take more here and there. Those 30 days sound great to others...but they're not always easy. After being apart for such an extended amount of time, to then being together 24/7 for a straight month....not always the best thing. I'm thinking about after Chad's been on leave for a couple weeks (which means he'll have been home for about 30 days)...taking a day out for me...so he's with the boys and they can do something special. I just want to keep things good for all of us and I know that if we're constantly together, it's not good. Chad and I are both home bodies in general, although we do love to travel. At the same time we need a little space. He's of course more than welcomed to take a day off himself and just go and do what he'd like. I'm going to check into if he can get a fishing license over here or not. When we were stationed here last time it was hundreds of dollars, so I have to find out. This is something he really, really loves to do and although he wouldn't be able to do it when he got home, to give him the gift that he could come spring time would be awesome!!!
Well I'm exhauted...so I'm off to bed.

God Bless