Hospital

Off to the hospital. Keep praying. 

Stay tuned

Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baby

Well the date has come and gone and Gillian is still pregnant.  Keep praying.

Stupidity of unusual porportions

I have some true stupidity for everyone: not I am gettting out of the Army type stupidity; it is you have to be kidding, no you really mean it, stupidity.

It reminds me when I was in the rangers and someone broke their ankle on a parachute jump, and they were wearing non-issue boots.  The rangers then in their infinant wisdom made the conclusion that the boots where at fault so they banded non regulation boots.  We will totally ignore that on average there are 5-6 broken ankles a year in a parachute battalion.  I love the army.

Anyway I, and 80 other soldiers, marines, and airman get on a C17 yesterday armed with M16s, M4s, and 9mm pistols.  We have enough fire power to take out a battalion of Talaban with some to spare.  When we go through the security gate we are serched for knives.  There is an Airforce policy that you cant take knives on board.  You have got to be kiding me.

Let us see, I think I will ignore the pistol at my side and hi-jack the plane filled with heavily armed soldiers with my pocket knife.  I can see why the airforce would be concerned with that.  I possibly said something sarcastic to the airforce, but fortunately they still let me on board.  I love the Airforce.

Ok so the real travel update is I am now in Kuwait and my flight back to the US is very early in the morning on the 24th.  That is great news as far as I am concerned.  I am told that it takes 2-3 days to out process, so I should be getting back to Oregon by about the 28th.  I am planning on buying my ticket to England for the 30th, and then the  whole family will be back the 31 of October.

I will keep you updated if I find anything dumber than the no knives, but guns are ok rules.

Prayer Report

I just wanted to update all the prayer warriors out there on Tom and David.

Tom (my best man) just got out of the hospital and is now in a rehab center.  He is able to walk pretty well and in improving the funtion of his hands and arms.  He still has a long way to go, but he has also come a long way.  He is completely off the IV narcotics so he is much more aware and alert, and since he is one of the smartest people I know, it is quite the relief to get his brain fully functioning again. 

David (one of my doctors) has had his chest tube and breathing tube removed.  He is now able to talk again, and sounds like he is getting out of the ICU in the next day or so.  I have not talked to him, just gotten reports, but everything is sounding much improved.

Please continue praying for both of them and their families.

View from the home front

This is Gillian writing today.  Patrick has been having some logistical problems his end, so has given me the authority to wield a mouse and keyboard – is this wise of him?

 First of all, as he hasn’t posted for a few days, I didn’t want people worrying about him: he is fine, just having some internet problems which should be fixed soon.

 As for ‘view from the home front’, that’s not technically accurate because I’m not actually at home.  The boys and I are in England for the summer, staying with my parents.  The cat’s the only one keeping the home fire burning!  We decided it was a good opportunity to visit family and friends that we rarely see, and most people have not met the boys before.  The biggest challenge has been to make Benjamin understand that where we are living now is NOT home, but we will be going home, and that daddy isn’t away for good, but will be with us again.  This latter challenge has been made much easier due to SKype and webcams.  We talk to him almost every day, can see him in his room, and he can see us. As soon as Benjamin hears the Skype sound he comes running, shouting ‘daddy’, even if he is at the other end of the house.  He loves to show Patrick the current toy, or what he’s having for breakfast, or tell him about the latest train he’s seen.  Edward is too small to worry about it in the same way, but does shout ‘daddy’ when he sees him. On the whole he’s more interested in pressing all the keys on the computer.

I also show the boys photographs of our close friends and relatives from Salem and make show that they know the names of everybody, so that they remember them when they get home.  For those of you in the photos, yes, Benjamin can say all your names and gets excited to see you.

The biggest challenge for me has been sleep! The boys no longer overlap their nap times, and although Benjamin is very happy and settled in the day, he’s had a lot of trouble getting to sleep at night.  By the time they are both asleep I head off to bed myself.  Although I have great help, with my parents here, it still comes down to me having the sole responsibility, without a husband to pass it off to.  Hence, I have not had the time to e-mail and writer letters as I was expecting (sorry to everyone that I would love to write to – you’re not forgotten).

So, on the whole, we’re having a good time being here.  It has been wonderful to see friends and family, to be able to walk everywhere and get fit again, to enjoy the chocolate and cookies that I miss from here, and have baby sitters on hand! 

Hopefully Patrick will be online again soon and give you all his news.  Thanks to everyone for reading the blog and all the prayers and good wishes.

Gillian

Muslim Vs. Christian

ok here is another comment that was emailed to me.

I still have some reservations over what you wrote on the blog about muslims.  Obviously I don’t know who you’ve met there, and you may have met some wonderfully devout muslims, but I think that amongst the Christians you know and are related to, people are VERY sacrificial.  People give a lot of time, money, energy, and are prepared to give their life (like the guys going to Bangladesh), and the YWAM people in India.  And just think, you inspired someone (Don) so much with your trip to India that he nominated you for a medal for it.  He thought your commitment was outstanding.  There are many people that we know like that, and I’m sure many, many more that we don’t know what they do.  I think it’s fashionable to say that Christians are apathetic, and I know that we could all do more, but I really think that among the people you know well, they lead by example. And it’s worth asking ourselves, are we doing enough, as you say you think more Christi ans should be doing.  Also, remember that in Afghanistan you see examples of the worst of the worst of Islam with the Taleban – yes they’re committed to their cause, but have no love for people and no respect for anyone who disagrees with them.

I agree with this, I have wonderful role models personally.  I have been very blessed by being surrounded by great Christians, and I see people who have dedicated their life.   I also agree that a lot of the Muslims that we see in the press are not true Muslims.  The Koran preachs as much love and nonviolence as the Bible does.  The only thing that I admire is the dedication.  I think it is dedicated to the wrong thing, but still it is dedication.

All food for thought.  Is just dedication to be admired, or is what you are dedicated to what matters most?

Ok trying a differant size.  On the publish page they look the same to me, but hopefully it will be larger.  I will not be doing this too much, as it takes about 10 min per photo.

Pictures take 2

I think I got it.

Still more about pictures – not acual pictures

Ok so I have discovered that I need a photo editor prior to editing photos.  I hope to have one on the 21st and then I will get the pictures up.  I am trying to get this as fast as I can, because I know you really want to see them.