Two Becoming One

Julia Davidson Wright was a gorgeous bride! The day went smoothly, which meant that all of her work and planning had paid off, praise the Lord! She has some wonderful people in her life supporting her, not to mention that Ryan is a spectacular catch! I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of her and Ryan's day.

Some highlights of the wedding:

-when flower-girl Elizabeth got down the aisle and whispered to me about her petal dropping, "I missed a spot. Can I go back and fix it?"

-when Elizabeth fell asleep during the ceremony

-when I took my sister's flowers for her so that she could give both hands to Ryan to pledge their vows to one another

-when I seemlessly handed her Ryan's ring without falling down the steep steps in my high heels

-when David's family came to support Julia and me, too

-seeing friends from as long as 25 years past, who are still supporting and loving our family

-seeing Julia's face as she was about to leave. It read contentment and relief and honestly, an expression of winning the prize, which, of course, she has!

I'm so happy for my little sister and the dawning of her new life!

More yummy fruit!

We have once again been enjoying the fruit of our labor. Granted, we haven't worked that hard on the garden this year, but we are nonethelessenjoying it's fruit. We have little grape tomatoes growing like crazy! We gave a ziplock bag full to our neighbors and have a bowl sitting on our counter that we just take a couple from every so often. They're very sweet! The bigger tomatoes, Better Boys, finally developed (I think it was too hot before) and are large and turning red. I've had one already on a turkey sandwhich and it was really yummy also. It makes me realize that I only tolerate tomatoes from the store. I don't enjoy them, except rarely. I wouldn't even really eat tomatoes at all until after I turned 20! My favorite way to eat them is on sandwiches and hamburgers and taco salad. What is your favorite way to eat a tomato? Comment and let me know!

Oh, and let me not forget the watermelon! I almost did with that tomato story. Well, despite my best efforts, I only got one melon. I picked it today, washed it and put it in the fridge. I cut it open tonight and upon first looking, knew I should had left it on the vine for another 2-3 days. I've been watching it closely for almost a week and it hadn't grown any bigger and sounded very ready via the "thumping" method. However, despite its looks and small seeds, it still had a very sweet taste!

And the red peppers were actually yellow! Maybe somebody switched the signs at Home Depot and snickered to themselves, "Somebody is going to think they're buying red peppers and they're actually going to be yellow! Ha, ha, ha, ha!" But then again, maybe it was an honest mistake. You never know about these things. Whichever the case, they were fine. Not amazing, not bad; they just were. I love peppers in salads, but I also love them roasted!

182 and counting!

Today is the 182nd day of being in theater. I arrived at Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan on 23 Feb 09 and now I officially have a "Short Tour" behind me. It is a good feeling to know that half of my deployment is behind me and I still have not taken leave! Once I get back from leave, at the end of September, I will have roughly 4.5 months to go.

It's been a busy six months, though. Here are some metrics:
140 movements via helicopter (US, French, Canadien), HMMWV, MRAP, SUV, and dismounted patrol
34 locations
7 provinces
9 Master's credits
4 LEGO sets
2 home FOBs
100s of pictures
1000s of memories

I am praying that the next six months will be as eventful and will go by as quickly. Here are some other metrics that helped get us through this last six:

1 Lord
1 Rachel
3 Kids
22 Supportive close family members
23 care packages and letters
1 USAF group
1 unbelievable church family
Countless close friends
Dozens of meals, mowings, and phone calls

Thank you everyone for being there for Rachel, the kids, and me over the course of the last six months.

In Him,
David S.

The Unexpected Journey

Thom S. Rainer and his wife, Nellie Jo, set out to discover the lives of those who turned from other religions and their influences to find Christ. Although it is neither a theological treatise, an apologetics primer, nor a Bible study The Unexpected Journey is sure to motivate any reader to explore more via all three.

In my opinion, this book should be required reading for all Christians and it deserves a place on their shelves next to Mere Christianity, Purpose Driven Life, and of course The Holy Bible. Rainer's narrative style and the amazing stories from so many different backgrounds (Satanist, Muslim, Agnostic, to name a few) drove me to the end wishing for more and hoping his afterward would speak of a timeline for a follow-up book.

I hope you will pick up a copy soon and share your thoughts here.

In Him,
David

The Polling Stations are Open!

(MP) - It is election day across Afghanistan and tensions are high. We are praying for relative quiet and a fair election for all Afghans.

It's Football time!

The USA Today Pre-season poll has Georgia Tech at no. 15. It's not that big of a surprise that they are ranked as high, moving up seven spots from the 22-spot at the end of last season and after a dismal loss to LSU, considering the effort CPJ has put into building on last year's foundation. Furthermore, they are returning this fall with 17 starters (9 offense, 8 defense), more than any other ACC school, including ACC Player of the Year, RB Jonathan Dwyer. Needless to say, Tech has an opportunity like they haven't had in over a decade!

Unfortunately, there are some things playing against us.
1. Pre-season ranking: This is almost always a killer for ACC teams. The Jackets need to ignore the ranking and look to Jacksonville State. It may seem like an "exhibition" game on paper, but the Bulldogs are not going to relent easily and everyone at Grant Field needs to remember that.
2. Press coverage: The Jackets have had a lot of press coverage and active PR going on in the off-season to boost the overall "star appeal" of the team while keeping the recruits interested. This can easily backfire if they don't produce. They need to stick to the plan and not showboat; CPJ knows his stuff about running an option offense and every player must run their positions flawlessly to put points on the board. Keep their minds out of the Sunday Sports section and in their studies and playbooks.
3. We beat Georgia: They are not happy in Athens. We destroyed the hopes of a top ten ranking for them (both post and pre-season) and we raised lots of eyebrows across the state. They will be gunning for us, at home this November. This will only serve to distract our players as they hang out in Athens on the days off or chat with their friends. Once again, they need to stay focused on the task at hand each week and make each week pay off.
4. Finally, high expectations: I would argue that Atlanta in general has one of the biggest fair-weather populations of any major sports city. The Tech following is unfortunately not that much different. Sure, we almost always filled the stands for the bigger games, but when Tech was losing (even by not much), folks lost interest and stayed away. Regardless of the outcome, the fans need to stay with their team. Go to the games; tailgate; usher the team in to Bobby Dodd Stadium as they take their walk before the game; wear Tech gear; watch them on T.V. and invite friends over.

Well, we are just a few weeks away from kickoff and I wish the best for my Yellow Jackets. I was there during their last, best season (ACC Co-Champions, 1999) and I look forward to watching them rise to the top again. I wish I could come to some games, but the commute from Afghanistan is a little much.

Go Yellow Jackets!

"They say it's your birthday!"

Wow. I never really expected to have such a great birthday 7,000 miles away from home and yet God provided! He provided in so many ways but more than any other, in the love that was evident in care packages, notes on FaceBook, and messages left on Skype. Rachel sent a half sheet of her freakin'-awesome cookie cake and my mom sent all the trimmings for a rockin' "Transformers" party. Thank you, everyone for making this a special day.

A "Transformers" party in my office, complete with an amazing Confetti/Angel food cake that my mom had shipped from GA! She may have forgotten forks (something that we are definitely not lacking over here) but she made sure to include icing, 32+1 candles, hats, a "Birthday Hero" ribbon, the "Happy Birthday" banner, plates, napkins, and those funny things that roll-out when you blow into the open end. This birthday was definitely more than meets the eye!

My mom also sent several presents, probably the most exciting of which was a copy of The Reagan Diaries". Reagan is quickly growing to become my favorite president and one of my favorite leaders. I can't wait for this semester to be over so I can devote a lot of time to exploring this man and specifically his devotion to God and his wife even more.

Finally, but certainly not least, I received special letters from Rachel and all three kids. I am not sure why this photo uploaded like this, but maybe that's how Hannah Joy really wanted me to view it! Anyway, along with these special letters from each of them, I received framed 5x7s of each of the kids and enough Mentos to open a 7-11!

In a strange twist on the typical birthday fare, at least three folks sent me care packages that also had two-ply toilet paper! I guess there are at least a few folks reading my blog!

In Him,

David

Andrew's Everest

Andrew has worked so hard for the last two months. No, he wasn't actually training to climb a mountain, but he was learning to swim and learning to swim in water where he couldn't touch the bottom. To ask him 2 months ago, there was a huge difference! Look at him now. He swam across the entire pool, with only a little break. David and I are tremendously proud of him! We are also very grateful to Coach Kathy and all the older kids who helped Andrew on his journey. He finally did it!

The Cardinal of the Kremlin

Tom Clancy is well known for his detail-oriented military/government espionage thrillers. In this regard, The Cardinal of the Kremlin is a mainstay. This is Clancy's fourth book and it picks up where The Hunt For Red October left off. Regular allusions to previous events add to the saga of Jack Ryan and his friends and new characters are woven in with clever twists and turns to keep the reader guessing.

There are no amazing lessons learned and I did not finish it with a much better feeling than I started with. But, like chocolate, this work satisfied my desire for some just plain fun in reading.

This book covers everything that Clancy is good at - spies, the Navy, special ops, family, the White House, and uber-geeks. The basic premise of the book is that a long-standing spy in Russia gets compromised and Ryan et al work tirelessly to get the agent out safely. Of course, in the meantime Clancy involves the usual potential for worldwide destruction, double agents, super-detailed scientific exchanges, and the occasional sexual innuendo between some of the lower "billed" characters.

If you have read any Clancy (real Clancy) than you will have either already read this one or you need to read it now.

Andrew can swim!

(MP) - I am thrilled to announce that a summer of swim "team" practices paid off in a HUGE way just a couple days ago. Andrew (6) swam the entire length of the pool (25-meters) by himself! At the beginning of the summer he could not even swim on his own at all! I know Rachel is trying to post a video of this great feat, so stay tuned!

The joys of traveling

I am currently in Kapisa Province working on getting a project started. The trip was pretty short notice and I made it out here in good time. My goal is to be back at my "home" camp by my birthday, but there is no guarantee of that.


Traveling has its perks as well as costs. I get to see a lot of the country, but sometimes I get stuck places that I really don't need to spend a lot of time. For instance, on my last trip the other engineer I was travelling with and I got stuck for an extra six days at a pretty isolated location. It gave me a lot of time to read and watch movies but very little time to do work because I was almost completely disconnected. Additionally, it gave my coworkers back at my "home" camp plenty of time to figure out a great prank.


So, upon returning, I found the below image waiting for me!

I'm guessing I'll find something else exciting waiting for me after this trip, though I can't imagine how they'll top this!