Deployment....and reflections on a year on Guam

Plumeria flowers that are everywhere here. They smell sooo good!
Hibiscus, also everywhere, but they don't smell like anything
Samuel cuddling with Daddy
Thanks for the outfit Uncle Aaron & Aunt Marina
Not sure what this flower is
trying to keep his balance while going downhill
on an evening walk
getting ready for bed

Our little guy, 12 months.

It is hard to believe, but we are approaching the 1 year mark of being here on Guam. I have enjoyed it very much: the slower pace of life here, the close-knit community, the warm, genuine church we've been attending, perpetual summer, outdoor activities, and a part-time job as a community pediatrician that has actually been going well. Rudi has been enjoying all of the things about Guam that I have, including my job, but he does get a little "island fever" from time to time. This island fever recently has been compounded by the fact that he broke his right wrist and separated his left shoulder about 7 weeks ago in a mountain biking accident (thank God he didn't get hurt worse). This has kept him from, surprise, mountain biking, but also weight lifting and running (though he's running again now). One thing that has been frustrating is the bureaucracy of the navy. It is very frustrating at times,

and feels very anonymous, but he is grateful for where he is and what he is doing. He feels especially grateful for the enlisted young men and women-particularly the corpsmen with whom he works every day-and is glad to serve those who are sacrificing so much at a young age.

So what's the deal with deployment? Well, we knew when we came out here to Guam that Rudi would pretty much 100% be deploying once during our three years of service that he owes. With the US involved in Iraq still (well, at least they still need docs over there to support the troops that remain), and now Afghanistan, the rate of doctors deploying to support Army and Marine troops has increased over the last year. We have known that Rudi's turn to deploy would be sometime this coming fall, winter, or spring. But with several colleagues of Rudi's in line to deploy before him, we figured it was several months off still. However, due to a couple of changes, Rudi is now up to go in AUGUST.

Rudi is scheduled to go to Iraq with the Marines sometime in August/September. His training starts at the beginning of August at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where we expect him to be for around a month. His deployment is scheduled to extend to March/April of 2010. We're not sure where in Iraq he's going yet--not sure when we'll find that out.

Samuel and I are planning to fly to NC with Rudi at the beginning of August and stay in Charlotte with family (can't wait to see you, Charis, Bobby, Keely, Candace, Mick, Natalia, Moses). That way, if Rudi gets a few days off here or there during his training, we'll get to see him! Some of Rudi's pals that have been through training at Lejeune said that they got multiple days off during training where they easily could have visited family if they were nearby. Hopefully, seeing him in August will help as it cuts off one month of our separation.

Obviously, I am sick about the upcoming separation that our family will have to endure. Part of me thinks it shouldn't be a big deal because thousands of Navy families deal with similar situations every year. Some go through deployments that are a year or even 15 months. Some are families of combat soldiers that are in more dangerous situations than our doctors. But the bottom line is that no matter what, this 9 month deployment will not be easy on Rudi, me or our families.

I am taking about 5 months leave from my job. It is a huge blessing that I have a job where I can say, "my husband is deploying and I need to take the baby and go to the States until January...will I have a job when I get back?" And get the response, "of course..." I guess there are no guarantees as I've signed no contracts, so we'll see. One thing that does stress me out, though is all the doctor-patient relationships that I've formed over the past several months that will be cut off for a while. I just feel bad for some of the families that decided to come to our clinic, counting on there being a pediatrician here. Hopefully they understand, I don't know what else to do because staying here the ENTIRE time Rudi is gone seems like too much.

My biggest hope (besides Rudi staying absolutely safe during his deployment and travels) is that Rudi and I will each grow in faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Please be in prayer that this is the case. Because of our laziness and Samuel's poor sleeping (no excuses, though!), we are pretty irregular about our devotional time. And of course there is the never-ending problem of us falling asleep while praying and not praying enough. We're trying to work on that now, and hopefully we'll be able to work on that during deployment. We do believe that God is a good God and has a plan for us. This deployment is not beyond God and we need to focus on the fact that this is all within His purpose, and that at no point will we be out of His loving care.

I've included some Samuel pics and pics of flowers around where we live to brighten the post.