Afghanistan through the eyes of Sgt. Borja

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Afghanistan through the eyes of a good friend, and another look into how Derrick and his team lived for 10 months in Afghanistan. Some of the images are tough to see and the language is sometimes undesirable but what you have is the truth as they lived it.

All Clear!

Today had been a pretty awesome day. By Tuesday morning Okinawa time it's Monday evening on the east coast and I've come to LOVE Tuesday mornings.
It seems every Tuesday we wake up to something new from our Realtor, Broker or in today's case, Broker and NC DMV.

Everything is now on track to re-plate & register our Jeep. Now we're good to pick it up in Texas then drive on through to NC. Woohoo! We received a response from our broker with some great news too. But the best thing about today is the call I just received.

The nurse from my medical clinic just called to let me know my most recent tests have come back NEGATIVE! A year or so of craziness, a few months of serious stress, uncomfortable tests and worry of cancer followed by months of waiting & I got the all clear, no regrowth!

Still have to do the annual checks but my 6 months recheck was fantastic & I'm over the moon!

Reminiscing

I was chatting with my neighbor today, talking about Derrick and I and 'our story'. I told her that I wrote a blog with all the details a few years ago and I'd try to find it. Well, I found it.
It was hard not to completely rewrite it, I can't believe some of the spelling errors I had (I did fix those). I think I left most of the grammatical ones though. That way, if you take the time to read this little novel you can laugh at my uneducated self between all the "aww"s and "What were they/he/she thinking?"s.
Leah, and anyone else who'd like to hear most of how Derrick & I found our way back to each other- here it is as I remembered it just about 3 years ago.

Friday, March 30, 2007
Happily ever after
Current Mood: grateful

Okay so I know I should be at the BX right now, but I just finished talking to a friend and sharing a little history and just feel really cheesy and amazed and well just grateful I guess. Tell me this isn't the cutest happily ever after story EVER.
My high school sweetheart, we date for about a year before ending things. We moved apart and shortly after I find that I am pregnant. We live our separate lives 1500 miles away with little contact through the years. Four years later I decided to call the last number I knew for him- his moms house, and sure enough he's home on leave. He's since started his adult life in the Marine Corps. After regaining my composure, because I never thought in a million years that he would be there, let alone answering the phone, we talked for a good 2-3 hours. He was flying back to San Diego the next day and he told me he would call. I didn't expect to hear from him again, at least not anytime soon. That evening to my surprise he called and we talked again for hours. He was supposed to leave that Tuesday but his flight was pushed back to the following Monday. So we planned a weekend meeting midway between the base he was at & the city I lived in for the upcoming weekend. I was in Sacramento and he was in San Diego. One of his friends had just gotten married and his wife lived in Bakersfield. So the next weekend we (my mom, Melanie and I) drove down and met and he came up. As we parked the car I saw two people coming towards us, but couldn't see their faces. I knew which one was him just by his walk, and when I saw him, I was lost. That was the first weekend he saw Melanie and it was perfect. Maybe a little too perfect. She immediately knew who he was and attached to him as if he'd been in her life all along. And for us, he and I, it was like time had stood still. Everything that was there back in high school, all the emotions came flooding back. The next morning we sat at breakfast at Denny's I think. My mom joked with us about when the wedding was. What she didn't know was we had been talking about it almost all night, I don't know that we slept at all. Honestly, I think we were both thinking more along the lines of when he returned from his deployment.
We left Bakersfield and drove 5 hours that seemed like a million. We didn't talk again until Monday morning when he told me his flight was bumped again, the dates kept changing and as the week played out, we realized he was going to be home for one more weekend. I had this crazy idea to fly him up to us, but his command shot it down. He wasn't going out of bounds the weekend before a deployment. We had different plans though, to hell with the command. Derrick landed in Sacramento at about 8 pm and we drove from the airport straight to Lake Tahoe, stopping long enough to pick up my brother, sister and now brother in law. We made it to Tahoe in about 2 hours time with traffic and weather. The whole way up talked about making sure this is what we wanted to do, that it was okay to back down, or wait or just do it. Somewhere along the way in our caravan of 2 cars we lost the one with my sister and daughter, but still went on with the wedding. We had a small wedding in a little chapel just off the highway. Eventually we found the girls and crossed over into Nevada for a little while. My mom and brother did some gambling and we all just sat and talked as a family. We made it back to my house by about 4 am- and he got to spend the day with Melanie and my family. I couldn't get out of work. The next day he had to fly back to the base, but he missed his flight. We ended up driving him back which gave us a little more time together. His flight was bumped once more before actually leaving on Tuesday May 6th for his first deployment to Okinawa.
Since then we've added 2 sons to the mix, had 4 additional deployments and lived from coast to coast, bought and sold our first home, and now the other side of the ocean, and this April will be 10 years since our reuniting again and in May it will be our 10th wedding anniversary. Though we've had our bumps along the way this is one fairy tale I don't think I'd even attempt to alter. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful amazing husband. In a matter of days he'll be home so we can celebrate this amazing life we have, TOGETHER.
(So, in our cute little story I left out the drama and the fact that I had a boyfriend when we got married (Derrick did know - and I broke up as soon as I got back from San Diego). That's all just miscellaneous stuff anyways, right?

365 days later.

A year ago today both Derrick in Afghanistan & the boys & I here faced some pretty stressful situations (to say the least). What a difference a year makes. So thankful to have come through it unscathed.

We've spent the weekend together doing things as a family. Not so much forgetting the fact that it's Valentine's Day but focusing on us as a family (& very much missing Melanie) rather than focusing on Derrick and I as a couple.

After last year, and a Friday night spent going through video footage and photos we were reminded of how precious our time is together. I don't want or need diamonds or precious gemstones. I don't need a [holi]day to remind me to appreciate everything I have been blessed with. I have my husband healthy and for now he's home and I have three beautiful (sometimes wild and crazy) children. There's not much else I could ask for.
 
(For a recap of last years Valentine's you can click here to read that blog.)

What a difference a day [or month] makes

Every new year you hope for better things to come. For us, January came crashing in with a vengeance, or so it seemed. We were hit with a pretty intense blow that shook us pretty good. Not that there is ever a good time for bad news but the timing was off, or it was off from what our plan was.
I've always been a person who believes 2 things: Everything happens for a reason, and God won't give you more than you can handle. We're an awesome family (if I say so myself) and I knew we could handle it all, and even do it with a little bit of grace. What I seemed to forget a few times is the first one.
It's all making sense and not just for the obvious reasons. This, this change is what we needed now. It made us realize things about ourselves, and each other. We were reminded of the strength we have, individually and as couple and as a family and we realized exactly where our priorities are and where we need to be to be our best.
January was a tough month, but we pulled through. I can even look back and say it was a good month in spite of all the uncertainty.

As chaotic as January was, we never would have expected for February to blow in so gracefully. We're only 5 days in and the changes we've seen are so drastic. The blow we took last month was reduced to a small bump in the road and we received a wonderful prognosis. Add to that, this unexpected change in plans has turned into a huge blessing in disguise.

It's a little scary how smoothly everything has fallen into place and we're still very cautious, but the idea of a little bit of smooth sailing sure is a pleasant thought.