NTC: We Did It!

Well, the huge training exercise that we have been anticipating for over a year has come....and gone!! It's over. As I write this, Eric is in the air on his way home from California, and I am sitting in my living room, waiting patiently (not really!) for the time when I am planning to get the boys up and drive to post to pick him up.

He wasn't going to be able to come until the end of the week, but I found out today that circumstances had worked out for him to be able to get on the flight today. Of course, I was incredibly excited and HAPPY! And also a little bit panicked because I really wasn't expecting him to come home yet, and I had a bunch of stuff I wanted done before he got home and I had been counting on having several more days to do it! No worries, though! Got it all done in plenty of time, and now I am obviously finished and sitting down to blog! :)

I know that the time seemed to be passing very slowly this past month, but now that it's over, I feel like it was nothing. It seems now to have gone by so quickly. And while I had my share of sad, lonely nights, for the most part, I have been encouraged through this process. I finally learned that there are two ways to spend my nights without my husband: 1. Feeling sad and lonely, feeling sorry for myself with the t.v. on in the background, possibly crying a little bit while I fall asleep. Or 2. Having some really focused one-on-one time with the Lord. And I have decided that I prefer the second! I feel like my relationship with God has grown so much this past month, and I am thankful for all the time I had to devote to it in the evenings.

The hardest part of NTC was definitely the 2 week period that Eric was "in the box". During this time period, we had absolutely no contact whatsoever. No phone calls, no text messages, no emails, no skype...nothing. We knew it was coming and I was very nervous about it, but tried to view it as an opportunity to practice for the long periods of no contact that we will likely go through during his upcoming deployment. There were definitely times when it seemed to be passing very slowly, and I just longed to hear my husband's voice. But when it was over, and I finally got to talk to him again...that was the best feeling! It felt so good to just tell him what had gone on the past two weeks, and to hear about what he had done. He has been very busy, so we only were able to talk very late at night, but since he came out of the box, I have thoroughly enjoyed just being able to send him a text and know that he would get it that day. It felt like the coolest luxury! And it was also a huge relief to me that we hadn't grown apart at all. I was afraid there would be some awkwardness or distance between us after being apart and not speaking for so long, but there was none at all. We picked up right where we left off. I know that NTC is only a small picture of what deployment will be like, but I was still encouraged by that.

All in all, I am encouraged. He was gone for a month, and a month is about 1/12 of deployment (we hope), and I am confident that we can do that 12 times! We have worked very hard to prepare, and now that we have had the chance to try out some of the skills we have been trying to learn these past few years, I can finally say that I'm confident that we are ready. There will be times where I feel overwhelmed or where it feels like we won't make it to the end. But we know that if we just keep moving forward, we will eventually reach the finish line.

A theme that has emerged in my personal devotions this month is "This is temporary. Wait quietly; press on.". I have it on sticky notes all over the house. I believe this is how I will get through the next year of my life. By remembering that this is temporary-not only the deployment, but also this life and this world. No matter what happens to us in this life, we have eternity to look forward to, and all of the struggles we face in this life will be over then. By waiting quietly on the Lord for comfort and strength, and by pressing on when I feel too lonely and stretched too thin, remembering that I don't have to do any of this alone.

That's all for now! Soon I will be off to get my husband, and once he's home, I'm sure I will be much too wrapped up in him to blog for a while! :)

This has been my NTC theme song. It may turn out to be my deployment theme song, as well. We'll see. I love this song, and praise the Lord, He is always with me, carrying me through it all!