Matthew's Gift from Daddy

Hero

I recently got this Hero Canvas Gallery Wrap and I love it. It reads "I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him." I ordered it from alimocabeedesigns.com.

The Day We've Been Dreading

The day that we'd been dreading for nine months finally arrived. We dropped Ken off Saturday night for him to start his journey to Iraq. We had a great last couple of days together. We spent that Saturday having lunch with good friends, playing at the park and taking Matthew to the zoo. We were doing anything to try to keep our minds off of what was coming next. My mom had come down to Kansas to drive back with me which was really nice. After dropping Ken off we hit the road and got 3 of the 13 hours out of the way. My mom was nice enough to drive Sat. because I don't think I could have done it then. We made it to Baker on Sunday afternoon. Matthew traveled great and we were reunited with Zoe and Zariah who'd been in Baker since Easter. I could tell Zariah was looking for the missing 3rd member of our family which was pretty sad.

We're now busy getting settled in and starting our routine here. Our household goods arrive May 11th so I'm hoping by the middle of May we should be all moved in to my parents.

Ken made it safely to Kuwait and will be there training for a couple of weeks. We've gotten to talk to him every day so far which is nice. I can tell Matthew is really missing his daddy since he's being naughty to his mommy. We're all doing good, sad but good.

Operation Give a Hug

Ken is going to have a year without being able to hug Matthew, but luckily Matthew won't have to go a year without hugging his daddy. Ken got this doll from work and Matthew took to it right away. About 6 weeks ago he started to show an interest in all of his stuffed animals. He started hugging them, kissing them, and wanting to always have one with him. I'm sure his "daddy doll" will quickly become his favorite. Ken leaves next week for a 10 day trip to Iraq and then returns to start his training for the deployment. I hope with him being gone the doll will provide Matthew with some comfort. The websites for the hugs to go dolls are www.huggstogo.com and www.operationgiveahug.org.

Major Phillips

Ken had his promotion ceremony to Major on November 26th. I think it'll definitely take me awhile get used to him being Major Phillips instead of Captain Phillips, it just sounds funny to me!:) Brigadier General Wiggins, First Infantry Division Commanding General, did his promotion ceremony. For our non-military family and friends, BG Wiggins is the highest ranking person on Fort Riley. BG Wiggins gave a very nice speech about Ken's family's history in the military. He talked about Ken having a grandfather who served in Korea, a grandfather who was a POW during WWII, his father is a veteran of Vietnam, his sister a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), and Ken is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Matthew and I were also standing up there and BG Wiggins said that Matthew has about a 70% chance of serving his country also. As a parent that is a hard thing for us to think about. We love the military but are hoping for Matthew to take a different course in his life. After the nice speech, BG Wiggins removed his Captain rank and Matthew and I put on his Major rank. My sister Ashlee and her husband Neil had arrived that day to spend Thanksgiving with us so they were able to make it to the ceremony. I know that really meant a lot to Ken. I'm very proud of my husband for all he does for our family and this country!

Our Soldier and Hero Has to Leave

Well we got some sad news early this week. We found out that Ken has to deploy to Iraq with a transition team. For our civilian friends and family a transition team is a group of 11 guys that go to Iraq and Afghanistan to train the military and police there. Ken's job will be to train the Iraqi national police. He has to report in January for training and they train for 90 days and then deploy. Lucky for us the transition teams train on Fort Riley so that'll be 90 more days we have together. He'll then be in Iraq for a year. Matthew and I are planning on going back to Baker to stay with my parents while Ken's gone. It'll be a great opportunity for us to be around family that we just don't get while moving around with the army. One nice thing about having to go on a transition team is that Ken gets to chose where he wants to be when he gets back. It looks like we'll get to be in Montana for 2 years upon his return which is a blessing for us. We don't know for sure where yet but it looks like Bozeman, Helena or Missoula with him working at the college for ROTC. I'm so proud of Ken for what he does and although it'll be a long year of missing him, we have such a strong family that our love for each other will get us through it.