Thursday, March 12, 2009

Prayer Request

At piano lessons today Lois and I discussed our dog, Beatrix. She said she'd take her if she didn't have 3 cats....

Mike is getting details into what we have to do to take Bea with us. We are willing to pay for all the records, micro-chip, transporting her etc. We have been told by several that if we are taking a pet we want to take the Patriot Express right into Misawa AB as the trip is hard for pets through Tokyo and then you still have a train ride to Misawa....customs and such.

Mike was told yesterday that there are NO MORE flights of military personnel direct to Misawa AB. We will be flying in to Tokyo. After hearing the details of the trip, Mike fears that Beatrix won't survive the trip. We're all incredibly attached to our wonder dog. She's been a part of our family 15 years. She's 17 - 18 years old. She's nearly blind. She doesn't hear well. She has had to take aspirin a few times this winter for arthritis. We know she's old...but we also know she's stability for our children - and us. ::sniff::

Our older four children are all living in apartments. They won't be able to keep her. She needs out often during the day these days....

We are in a quandary. I know many of you will think this is silly...but it's not to us. Having been a Third Culture Kid and raising Third Culture Kids , I know that it is important for the children to have some parts of life remain the same during our many transitions. Beatrix has been one aspect of that for us. We've walked her in MT, TX, AK and look forward to walking her in Japan....but would it be more traumatic to collect her in Tokyo and find she'd not made the trip?

Realistically, not many are going to want an old dog. Ok enough - I'm in tears and this isn't good for any of us....pray that we figure out what to do....and that we are at peace about it....I'm going to go think about something else on the list for a bit of time.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

Another One Grows Up

This young man signed up for his Military ID today!

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He was all smiles when we went back on base and he had an ID to pull out for the guard. In an aside, I'd been told sponsor's SSN are no longer put on IDs.....but they had HIS "on file" and left Mike's on there. They said it's "phasing in". I could SWEAR that I talked to other moms from HERE whose dh's SSN are NOT on their children's ID cards....I must keep looking into this. Though I'm quite sure this responsible young man will never lose his ID. ::snort::

While at the office we made our appointment to go in for Military Passports. We plan to also get tourist passports because I'm DREAMING of an Asian Cruise...stopping off at all the countries in the area.....Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong... I'll worry about planning THAT later. It will only happen if we are able to live very frugally and save our COLA for exploring the area rather than paying rent and utilities. ::snort::

The lady there said to put ALL the children who are under 23 and full-time college students on Mike's orders....according to her they'll get one trip a year to see us. That means that Krista will need to come over our very first year....and the others will be able to space things out....though we'll need to save for Bre to come. Sadly, there are no longer Rotater (Space A) flights from Misawa.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

Arielle's Little Helper

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Baking Cookies

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Have You Ever Felt.....

like your school work was overtaking your life?

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Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

Two Thoughts -

I often "think on the blog"....therefore, you often get partial thoughts or things I'm working through and not completely formed thoughts. I think that is fine - and I'll explain why a bit later. Sometimes I even share something that I've worked THROUGH after the fact so that it is recorded.... Expect more of that because Mike wants to have the blog printed for a family record....and if *I'M* leaving a family record I want it to be REAL so that my daughters and granddaughters aren't trying to live up to some sort of bloggy-idealized-homemaker image. ::snort:: There you have it. THIS blog is a family record...it's written about family, for family, by family....and I don't want to be overly worried of the reputation we may have with blog readers that I negate the benefit it may be to my children or grandchildren....who some day may face the very same challenges I face. While *I* share my warts and all; I never share the warts of family members and friends without their permission.

That's number one.....just a thought that has been rattling around as I am often asked WHY I share the warts along with the pretties.

Number 2 - this "space thing" in our new home... I was praying about it this a.m. I'm NOT overly materialistic. I don't have a lot of "things"....but we have a ton of books and such.....downsizing is usually fun for me.

I realized what is bothering me about the size of the place we are moving to is not getting rid of things etc.....it's really the closeness of neighbors sharing walls on either side. It's hard for me to relax when I know that neighbors can hear every little word we say. We've lived like this before. I didn't enjoy it. I always felt that I needed to give large families, homeschoolers and Christians a good name by every action throughout the day. KWIM? SO.....downsizing we do with each move. We are a large family and have learned that we don't want to rob the kids of everything they love with each move. We tend to get rid of big things like washers etc.....so they can keep toys and books. Downsizing is something we do every 3 years anyway......the thing about the space is the lack of room to roam, to play, to be loud without infringing on the rights of others to have quiet. ::snort:: This too will work out...but now I have pinpointed what is bothering me about it and I can work on THAT. LOL

Time to run to piano!

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.