A message to Lauren and Laney

Feel better soon

Singapore, Sea and Sun!!!!

One month down, four to go!!!!

So Darin has been gone for more than a month now. It's always exciting to see the passage of time when he is deployed...just one day closer to when he comes home. He is doing well and seems to be upbeat and positive about his time at sea with the Nashville.

Florida Trip and Family Visit!

The kids and I have been trying to stay busy. We took a trip to FL a few weeks ago with my mom and stayed with my sister. My brother was also passing through Jacksonville FL on his way to Disney World so we got to have all the "Saar" cousins together for about 24 hours. It was a lot of fun for all of us. Then my niece and nephew were brave enough to fly up from FL by themselves for a long weekend to help out with the girls and hang out with Kyle. I think we all had a great time and enjoyed celebrating Travis' 13th birthday while they were here.

It's Official!!!

We finally received official orders to Singapore. We will be moving this July. Darin will be responsible for the base Chapel there, along with other duties I'm not sure of!!! :) It looks like a great place to live and the military will pay to send Kyle (and eventually Grace) to a private school, since there are no Department of Defense schools there. It is suppose to be the best quality of living in the US Navy, according to who I'm not sure!!!! Of course, having Darin's father and brother living in Thailand is a huge bonus (Bangkok is about a two hour flight from Singapore). We'll keep you updated on the move!

Trying to blog more often although I don't feel like my life warrants that much publicity!!!

Darin's second & final deployment in Norfolk VA

Darin left on January 15th with the USS Nashville for a six month deployment to West Africa. The ship is on a humanitarian mission to bridge relationships between the US, European Nations and Africa. They have an international contingency on board which Darin finds very interesting. Some of the Countries they will visit include Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon. (this is all posted publicly on the internet because of the mission so I'm not giving out information that is classified) Darin will take part in a lot of the Community Relations projects in the Countries they visit so it will be exciting for him. I'm hoping he gets to visit some orphanages and love on the children there. Darin was in good spirits when he left, knowing that this will be his last deployment for some time. We expect to be moving to Singapore in July so they will be flying Darin home a few weeks early to prepare for the move overseas.
So we are left here in Chesapeake but we are in a good situation. Missing daddy of course. Bethany doesn't understand at all where Daddy has gone. Grace has some clue and Kyle takes it like a man!!!! The other day we were in my bedroom and the washing machine started running and both girls thought it was the garage door opener and ran to the door yelling "daddy's home." I was heartbroken and didn't share that piece of information with Darin since it would kill him. But they bounced back and were back to playing long before I got over it!
Please pray for our family during this time. We want the time away to be meaningful...not just get by, but thrive. We also pray Darin's presence will make a real difference on the ship for the Kingdom of God. That is the only reason we are able to tolerate the separation as a family....knowing we are following God's plan for our lives.
On a personal note, please pray as Darin will go before the promotion board this May for promotion to Lieutenant Commander. We pray that all of his hard work and dedication (and separation) will pay off. Ultimately we know God has his career in His hands!!! May it be as the Lord wills!!! Thanks for all of your prayers!!!

Our new puppy, Pumpkin!!!

So just when I thought my life was getting a little more organized, Bethany was sleeping a little better at night, Grace is finally potty trained, in comes our little Pumpkin! We were not really wanting to get a dog at this point but circumstances presented itself and here she is!!!! She's really adorable and the kids love her. Hopefully we'll have better luck with her than other previous dogs!!!!

Look what I found today!!!!

Fall is here!!!

I'm so glad that October has come. I love cool, crisp air, apple pie and pumpkin patches. Sweatshirt weather and football season is the best!!!! Of course I am reminded of how HOT I am going to be in Singapore!!!!!

We are in full swing with school and Fall activities. Kyle is loving school and doing very well in all of his classes. He has a very cool math teacher (his worst subject) who he loves. She talks to him about her love of snowboarding, skiing, etc and Kyle just loves that she has a nose ring. Hey whatever works, right? His math grade has greatly improved since joining her class!

Grace loves preschool and is learning a lot. The other day she was in her room counting to ten in spanish!!! I was pretty impressed. She loves to color, draw, and sort things. She is still so very sweet and is such a joy to be around!

Bethany hangs with me most days, although I have her in a mom's morning out on Friday's so those are the days I have all the kids in school at one time. I have to say, most Friday's I don't know what to do with myself. Bethany loves to play outside and mostly pick on her big sister!!! She may be smaller but she just loves to annoy and antagonize Grace.....stealing and hiding Grace's toys, shutting the tv off when Grace is watching something, drinking from Grace's sippy cup (why that is appealing I have no idea...both of the girls cups have the same exact juice in them, just different color cups.....I guess the forbidden does taste better). She's really very sweet but definitely has a mischievous side!

Darin will begin his workups for his new ship this Fall with a deployment looming ahead in January. We are hoping they allow him off the ship a few weeks early to return home to prepare for our summer departure for Singapore. We hope he will be able to come home in May as opposed to June to give us some time to prepare for an early July departure. We'll see if it works out! Please pray as we go into this deployment! It's Darin's fifth deployment in six years and he's tired of leaving the family! I am not to thrilled about the single parent thing either!!!! We know we are where God wants us to be but it's not always easy. In Him we find strength!

This is quite long so I'll stop for now!!! Love you all! Lori