My Daily Prayer

householdzes — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:31:14 +0000

Christmas Blues or Christmas Spirit?

householdzes — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:48:49 +0000

My husband is overseas. We’ve been married for nearly 7 years and together for 8 years. Of our years together, the first Christmas was spent apart. Since then we have been lucky enough to celebrate this joyous occassion together. It’ll be a first in 6/7 years we’ll be apart for Christmas. We had the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving with new found friends we made here when we moved here 10 months ago. We are stationed OCONUS and far from both families (his in the midwest, mine in the Netherlands).
We celebrated ‘Thanksmis’, but really did not exchanged gifts and focused on eachother being eachother’s gift, being thankful that we could be together at least one day of this holiday season.
The Christmas decorations have been up since November 1st, a month early, so that my husband could enjoy them.
And while I am invited by friends (a military family, of whom the wife is from the area) to come and celebrate Christmas with them at their aunts house, it won’t be quite the same without my husband.
We have no children, as we have struggled in that area and lost two precious babies these past few months before he left.
The comfort of our two four legged children does help.

It is harder to get into the spirit though. Especially since my beloved husband had just left. But I try to not let this deployment ruin such a joyous occassion as celebrating the birth of our Christ Jesus. A thought I try to hold onto as much as possible. It keeps me going and hopefully it will keep in the Christmas Spirit, and keep me out of the Christmas Blues.

A healthier way of living

householdzes — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:43:00 +0000

The items in my grocery cart today consisted mainly out of veggies and fruits. I am working towards living healthier, which also includes eating and drinking healthier.

I made a green drink. With broccoli, kiwi, tangerine, celery, kale, spinach and some agave nectar. It tastes pretty good and until I have my juicer I will have to use the blender. This healthy concoction already makes me feel healthier.

At the moment I am also making Kale Chips. Mainly famous due to surfer Bethany Hamilton who snacks on this on a regular base. Kale Chips are a low calorie snack and very healthy!

The recipe for Kale Chips;

1 bunch of Kale
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Sea Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 300F.
Rinse the kale and dry. Cut out tougher stems and cut into big pieces. Add kale in a bowl with lid. Add olive oil and sea salt and mix. I just alarm the bowl with lid. Then lay a single layer on baking sheet(s) and bake for 20 minutes or until crispy. Let sheets cool on a rack until you can eat the kale chips. ENJOY!

Year of the Deployment

householdzes — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:05:32 +0000

My husband is scheduled to deploy again soon. Something that isn’t new to us. This will be my husband’s fourth deployment, and it will be his third deployment in our marriage. A thought that came to mind about deployment, was, and I quote;

“Deployment never gets any easier, but it does become familiar.”

I hope this makes sense to those who read it, and may be encouraging some, help them to understand the feeling they have during this time of separation.

Last deployment I worked my butt off, and slept the rest of it. This time around I decided that this will be a year of deployment where the focus is “me”. I stepped down from my supervisor position at work, so I can lower the stress. We have endured quite a lot the past four months, losing two babies through ectopic pregnancy. The last one I had to have surgery, and was in the beginning stages of hemorrhaging. I am grateful to God, that I am alive today. This deployment will also bring the daily stress of being separated from each other, while one is in a dangerous area. Self improvement is something that is of great importance to better my quality of life and health, and thus I have set a few goals, that I am determined to accomplish during this year of the deployment.

In order of importance;

1. Get closer to God and grow spiritually stronger. So I can be an example and great leader to the youth I have been started to teach.

2. Work out, get into shape, lose weight and eat healthier with the goal to stay this way and continue that life style. To the point where my husband won’t recognize me at the homecoming field next year. Haha! Oh, and to add to the exercise routine, will be cross country skiing ( and maybe some regular skiing). I’ve never done this, but I really want to learn. My butt will be hurting for a while, as I heard you’ll fall more than standing up straight for the first bit, but I am excited to try it out! Haha!

3. Organize bills to priority. Put the deployment money we receive in savings so that in the end, we can pay off all credit card debt we have left and put a good chunk of it in savings.

4. Become an American (I am still a Dutch Citizen).

5. Get adoption papers started. This way, when my husband comes home, we can get the ball rolling.

6. Sent my husband at least one care package a month, and as many letters as I can.

7. Start a monthly care package day for the soldiers in our unit, to be sent to all of them in general and to be shared. If anyone in our area wishes to join me in this en-devour, please contact me. You know how. Or sent me a message here.

I can say that this definitely will be a year of self improvement and empowerment, something that is necessary and well earned. It is for the better, it will better my life, and my relationships around me.
Deployment, here I come! Here we (my husband and I) come! We can overcome you!

Children are a blessing

householdzes — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:49:02 +0000

Children are such a blessing. This what I’ve come to realize as my husband and I have had to deal with the loss of our second baby this past week. I had to have a, basically life saving, surgery. Which where they went in to look at the situation. The baby was in my right tube, and the tube had already ruptured and started to bleed internally. They could not save the right tube, and cleaned the left tube. At the moment I am home recovering and am not allowed to work for a few weeks.
While our chances of becoming parents the natural way are decreasing, we now know, that after 6 years of praying for a baby, that we can get pregnant.
Needless to say though, we are still processing all this mentally. We have been praying to God for our own miracle for so long, and they both have gone to heaven. Resting in God’s arms.
We also have been thinking about adoption more and more, and are thinking about taking foster parent classes after Jon is back from deployment to be able to foster adopt.
Children ARE a blessing from God. Whether they are born from your womb, or taken into your loving home through adoption. We are and will be blessed with what God gives us and has given us. We are proud to be parents to two precious angels in heaven although we miss them dearly, we know they are in a happy place.

A sigh of relief

householdzes — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:17:14 +0000

We had some gorgeous 2 days a week ago. I decided to go up unto Mt. Baldy’s Skyline drive to see if I could see Mt. McKinley, and indeed I did. It was absolutely magnificent to see this and ofcourse I took some pictures to share with you!

Jon’s 4 weeks in the lower 48 went by incredibly slow, but he finally made his way home last tuesday. The moment I walked into his arms, I could let out a sigh of relief. All the burdens, the heavy load that I had to carry on my shoulder, with the loss of our first baby, finally got lifted and I knew I did not have to share it all on my own any more.
We have done pretty good when it comes to the grieving part, and from time to time we do realize we would be hitting nearly into our second trimester. A bittersweet thought, but if this is God’s will for us, than it shall be.
Physically I am still exhausted quite easily, and an 8 hour work day has me sore, exhausted beyond exhausted, and even my vision will become blurry in the end. But I work no more that 3 to 4 days a week, so I can slowly start it back up to full time. My b-HCG or hormone levels are back down to 21, which they have to be between 0 and 6 for us to be able to try for a baby again. I have to come back again end of the week for another lab test. But this is pretty good, considering my b-HCG was at 11,000 4 weeks ago!
We’re getting excited about trying again, knowing that the possibility is there we can get pregnant. But since it has taken us 6 years to get pregnant, we also know it might take a while again. We’ve been asking around and looking into the foster program and it is not as complicated as we thought it would be and something we may consider after Jon’s deployment is over.
At the moment we are enjoying a 4 day together, as it is labor day weekend. My manager was very nice and even asked if Jon had a 4 day and gave me Saturday to Monday off. What a great guy! Seriously. I am blessed with the consideration of management of our situation and the fact that Jon had been gone for most of this ordeal.

Last night we were invited for a Chili/ Salsa dip cook off and football party at a friends house this afternoon. This got me all excited and decided to make my “Autumn Turkey Chili”. It pretty much is Autumn here in Alaska, so I am sure it will be a good addition to the regular Chili most people make. One of the ingredients is butternut squash, which is not available everywhere at the moment, so I replaced it by sweet potatoes, which just as much adds the Autumn taste to it, like butternut squash. I hope to at least have half of the crock pot filled with Chili gone.

Now when talking about Autumn in Alaska, is that it about starts in August this year. It has been raining a lot and the mountains in view from our window to the right now show snow on their tops. The temperature at the moment is 47F on the ground and feels like 43F. So you can imagine the temperature at the top there. Winter is not far away. But we are enjoying fall!

Goodbye lil’ Angel

householdzes — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 23:56:08 +0000

Our good news, turned into bad news. We were able to enjoy the knowledge of the presence of our baby for about 9 days, until, after a week of lab tests and ultrasounds, our doctor confirmed. The pregnancy was ectopic. I had a really hard time keeping in my tears until the moment they let me call my husband and I talked to him and I broke down. It took a while before he could leave work to come and see me at the hospital, but he was there when they gave me the medicine that would stop the pregnancy.
We were both devastated. It took us so long to get that positive, and it turned into a failed pregnancy. But, by the Grace of God, and knowing our lil’ angel is now safe in God’s Arms, this gives us comfort. And knowing that now, we can get pregnant, gives us a hope and a great outlook on our future.
Today we had a little ceremony together, where we released a balloon in the honor of our Angel, with a little message attached. Below is a video I made of the release, for you to share this moment with us. All prayers and thoughts are very much appreciated, and we are overwhelmed by the support we have. It really means a lot to us! You are all abundantly blessed!

Finally! After 5.5 years!

householdzes — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 07:04:22 +0000

My husband and I have been trying for a child for 5.5 years. That is a pretty long time, and medical help did not help. So by now we had given up. But today, a week ago, I wasn’t feeling all that well and decided to take a pregnancy test. The regular one was the first and within seconds two lines showed up! Jon and I were in shock. Could it really be? So I decided to take the digital test, too. And it showed “pregnant”. I’ve never had that before! The same morning I took two more tests and both showed positive. I then went to the Women’s Health Center on base and there, too, it showed positive. We are so elated that it finally happened, but still in shock. It is still early. Nearly 6 weeks, but we couldn’t wait telling everyone!

Hellooooo Summer!

householdzes — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:51:36 +0000

Summer has been gorgeous so far. Aside from the rain we have had once in a while, we have had nice weather and were able to do some fun things on our vacation a while back.
Right before I went on vacation I had an interview with two of my managers for a possible promotion. I got promoted on the spot and started training right before my vacation started.
The first day we had a photo session with friends of ours near Girdwood/ Alyeska and after that us and the dogs made our way to Alyeska and hiked a good 6 miles through its rainforest. It was gorgeous! On Saturday we concurred Mount Baldy, up to the Black Ptarmigan Rocks, here in our town and parked our car at 1850 ft. The highest we got was over 4100 ft. and up and down we walked nearly 7 miles. I really could feel my legs the next day! But what a great hike! On our way down we took a different trail and found a little fallen down miners community. The marmots, birds and other little wildlife were also very apparent on the mountain.
Sunday we had invited a bunch of friends to have an official belated housewarming party, with some grilling and good food going on. We enjoyed socializing and getting to know everyone better. After everyone left we had to start packing for our 3 day camping trip to Homer, Alaska. The drive up was a bit rainy and so was the evening and early morning, but then the clouds cleared up and the sun came out. We met some German vacationers there, too. Very nice people. Our tent was beach view and we were able to make a small campfire on the beach, which made it very nice! We tried some fishing without any luck. But it were 3 very relaxing days. On our way back we stopped by the Norman Lowell. Iowa born, moved to Alaska in 1958 with his wife and 6 week old daughter. An artist, who, today is still alive. He and his wife and some family keep up the gallery, the beautiful yard and their old log cabin homestead was still there to be viewed. The artist came up and said hi, and introduced himself. It was a neat experience to meet the artist himself.
Sadly we had to leave Homer, and go back home. The vacation had ended way too fast. We’ll definitely have to do it again!

Click on the pictures to make them bigger. Click to back button to get back to the post.

Time flies!

householdzes — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:47:42 +0000

It has been a while since I posted in here. Time has flown by since we moved here, and we are enjoying life in Alaska with new friends, an awesome church body and just the ability to enjoy the beauty of Alaska!
We have taken the opportunity to hike a few times already, visit Anchorage, and the Alaska Native Heritage Museum. The fact that we live near the city, but can step into complete nature within minutes, too, is such an amazing experience. The husband already had some encounters with black bears during training, while the closest thing to a black bear for me was the paw print of a black bear. Nonetheless, that was quite an experience, knowing this big wild animal had set foot before I had set foot there. We are wise enough to bring bear spray with though. Our plans of visiting Denali National Park, and the coast of Alaska, I hope to complete during the husband’s block leave.
At the moment he finds himself a bit more up north, and is back on jump status since 2003. Yes, my husband is a paratrooper. In a way, this scares me a little. But I know he is good at it, so I don’t have anything to worry about. Today he got to jump twice, out of a helicopter. A jump he has never made before. It was out of a plane before, so this was a first to him.
A new experience to me too is the longer days. It has my clock off so much, I forget what time it is and by 9PM I realize I still need to eat diner! We have about 18.5 hours of daylight right now and the rest is twilight. Talking about clocks and time, it is past 1am at the moment, and I really need to get some sleep, as I have to get up in about 6 hours, for work! In the meantime, enjoy some more pictures below!