Exceedingly Abundantly Beyond

This morning I woke up to news articles about the Marines lost at sea.  The articles said that the search and rescue efforts have concluded and the official status for all five Marines has been changed to deceased.  Our friend, Daniel, is one of those Marines. In visiting with his parents last Saturday night, Duane asked that if I had any stories about Daniel, could I write it down and share it with them.  Derick and I knew Daniel mostly from the church bike trip that we all rode together.  Daniel and I rode together three times and Derick was with us 2 of those 3 years.   Three hundred miles on bicycles from Tremont, IL to the eastern side of Lake Michigan, and then a skeleton crew from Lake Michigan to just outside Ann Arbor, MI.  I felt like Derick and I were able to form a little bit of a bond with some of the young guys during that trip.  Especially with Daniel.  I told Derick last night, I remember riding with Daniel more than I...

Saturday night, I had a conversation with Derick.  I have been amazed at this deployment so far, that neither of us has been angry or resentful at the other person. Not at all!  Even on those days that I felt frozen in my tracks, clueless when it came to preparations. Sure, there were things that we could have done for each other to make life easier for this separation.  But, so far, we seem to have taken it all in stride. This is the fourth time Derick has been gone for an extended period of time.  And by extended, I mean more than 3 or 4 weeks.  The shortest time that he was gone, has been 5 months for boot camp and A school.  The longest was his deployment to Afghanistan for 11 months. This time he'll be gone for about 10 months.  Or at least that's what his orders say.  His deployments have never actually ended up the same as what the original orders say.  Its like waiting on a baby to be born on the due date... its pretty...

This week has been so busy. Not just busy, but inconvenient. Everyone has had to make adjustments. The washer is broken. I couldn’t even consider fixing it until now. And a broken washer seems to affect everything! But the Lord always takes care of us. And this week was no different. Thursday was a good example of that. I woke up with a sense of dread, an emptiness. And an acute awareness that Derick is not here. Of course I am aware of his absence everyday, but Thursday was different. Thursday I could physically feel his absence. My alarm sounds before the sunrise no matter the time of year. My dogs are whining and the coffee is brewing every morning, without fail, at a time that doesn’t exist in my family’s world. Mostly because I’ve discovered over the years, I’m just nicer to my kids if I’m up and going before them. Getting them out the door on Thursday, was the easy part. Nothing extraordinary. Their clothes were actually clean, in spite of my broken washer. The kids wen...

This weekend I had a wonderful opportunity to visit Derick on the Navy Base where he is stationed for training. I always feel at home with Derick on a Navy Base. As if that’s where we belong. There has never been any doubt between us, about Derick making a career out of the military. We have never questioned the Lord’s leading when it comes to the Navy. There are decisions in life that we whisper prayers over and hope we’re doing the right thing. There are decisions that we deliberate over for weeks. We really seek the Lord's wisdom and guidance. And pray the Lord’s blessing over the final decision we made.  And then there are those decisions in life that the Lord seems to make for us. The kind you cannot deny came from divine intervention. So much so, that to separate your life from that decision would be to deny God completely, defiantly raising a fist against Him who ordained this life. I can place my finger on two times that has happened in my life. The first is when ...

The name of my blog is “Exceedingly Abundantly Beyond”. I named it as such for the verse Ephesians 3:20. And it says “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Last week, I told of my struggles. I struggle with daily habits. I struggle because I’m not as young as I used to be. I struggle because after over 40 years on this earth, you’d think I would have developed better habits. Diet and exercise are discouraging. Finances are exasperating. And taking better care of my house seems fruitless in this stage of my life. My biggest struggle right now is prayer. I think if I prayed in faith more, maybe the other areas would be less of a struggle. But I feel often like my prayers are hitting the ceiling. It seems like it doesn’t really matter what I pray for, God’s gonna do what God’s gonna do. And I have, at times, even been afraid to pray because it seemed that whatever I prayed for, the opposite w...

One week. Tomorrow will be one week since we said goodbye to Derick. I’ve done this before.  I know I can do it again.  My sister, Carrie, and I have got to a couple of spin classes this week.  I’m totally out of shape but my legs don’t get sore like hers. I’ve done it before.  My muscles remember how it’s done. I know I can do it again. Then what is it about this deployment that makes me feel so alone and unmotivated?  I know I can do it again. We’re broke again.  But we’re always broke when he leaves.  It takes a month to get a paycheck when he switches to active duty.   My kids are older, more self-sufficient. That should make it easier.  But it doesn’t. I think it’s time to admit I’m struggling with me getting older.  I love watching my kids get older!  But me… that’s another story entirely! Two years ago, on November 30 I was 39 years old.  I don’t remember if I was in very good shape or not. ...

I am a Navy Reservist's wife.  My husband has a civilian employer.  We both work for a health care sharing ministry.  We go to work together everyday.  We come home together everyday.  We have coffee together every morning and dinner together every evening.  We work together to get the kids to school in the morning.  We work together to get them to all of their activities in the evenings and on weekends.  If we are away from each other when we would normally be together, we miss each other.  We are friends.  We are madly in love.  And after 13 years of marriage, 4 kids, 2 houses, and 3 separations courtesy of the USNavy, we still like each other and we enjoy spending time together.  But today I said good-bye.  Today starts separation number four.  Today he left for his third tour of duty.  And it started just like any military spouse would expect.  The car broke down in the airport parking lot.  And I...