Bloomin' Onion

So, we've made our rounds of our top favorite restaurants, but Matt was missing his ULIMATE favorite:  Outback.  We had just not gotten around to it yet.  I think he was saving the best for last.  I was planning on cooking dinner, but he had a craving.  We checked the mail today and what was in there!?!?  A very sweet note from Matt's "Soldier Angel."  She has been praying for our family, sending Matt letters and care packages, and keeping up with our lives via blog-world.  The letter was sweet and the kind ya just wanna keep!  :)  Inside was an additional surprise:  AN OUTBACK GIFT CARD!!!   WHOO-HOO!  It took all of .0003 seconds for us to decided what we were doing for dinner!  

I just want Betty to know how much we enjoyed our "Bloomin Onion" (and ribs, and cheeseburger, and 3 kids meals...those are a real splurge for us!).  

All is well on the homefront.  4 days off wasn't quite enough, but was just enough all at the same time.  Please pray for our remaining soldiers who are going to be arriving until about the 18th!  Our only hitch was Sunday night when we left Red Robin with 3 balloons.  About halfway home one popped.  It scared Matt to death and let's just say I was VERY thankful I was still doing most of the driving!

If you think of it, pray for our friends, Corie and Matt, as they're going to have our crew tomorrow night so we can celebrate Valentine's Day in style (yes...a day early.  Corie and Matt have and Army Ball on Sat. so we're watching their boys on the actual Valentine's night).  

Reintegration, Part I

Here is a breakdown of the day Matt returned up to the present moment!

Friday:

8:00 am - Bailey goes to school

9:00 am - Hayden and Carson do some school work

11:00 am - I begin to work on last minute things and Bailey comes home from school.

12:00 pm - Lunch

12:30 pm - TJ watches the boys during their nap so I can go get my phone (which I had left at the nail salon the night before...they closed before I realized it...Verizon took care of me, though!)

1:30 pm - I return home and decorate the van.

2:30 pm - I get my shower

4:00 pm - The boys and I head to the Main Gate to watch for the busses to drive through!!

4:15 pm - Yvonne and her crew show up to join us in the excitement

4:30 pm - We hear that the busses are going to come through at 5:30, we decide to wait it out.

5:30 pm - We hear that the plane has not even landed, we're freezing and kids are getting hungry.  We give up, decide to go get some pizza to kill time before the 7:25 pm ceremony (but I give my phone number to a lady who was going to wait it out...she would call if something changed)

6:00 pm - Lady from the gate calls and tells me that the busses are on Powers, about 15 minutes away.  We kick it into high gear to clean the tables we were sitting at in the PX and load 7 kids (ages 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, and almost 1) into 2 minivans.

6:15 pm - We arrive back at the gate and RUN to the bleachers.  (Bailey decides to sit in the van because it's too cold!  We take the extra pizzas to share with the die-hards who had stayed in the cold.)  

6:25 pm - Bailey comes out of the van crying because he wanted pizza

6:26 pm - I'm the first to spot the BLUE LIGHTS signifying their arrival!

6:31 pm - The busses slowly drive up 115 and turn into post.  Dozens of police and motorcycle escorts leading and trailing

6:40 pm - We had just seen a bus that held daddy, though we didn't know which one.  He had seen us, though!

6:45 pm - We take our time getting to the Special Events Center and arrive ready to be INSIDE for a while!

6:51 pm - I get a call from a friend hoping to find out where to meet us in the SEC.  I miss a call, ended up it was Matt trying to call in.

6:53 pm - I call Matt for the first time in 14 months and 2 days...he had been issued his work phone!!  While we are chatting (me telling him where to look for us when he marches in), the phone beeps in letting me know the battery is dying.  So much for updating Facebook!)

Here is the crowd waiting for Matt (not everyone in this shot was for Matt...but 7 of them!)

While at the SEC we listened to music, danced to YMCA, Chicken Dance, Conga, etc.  It was sort of like a Prom with wives and kids, no men.  

7:30 pm - They gave us a 2 minute warning, and one minute later they started "the song."  Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue by Toby Keith.  The smoke started coming in out of the doorway they were about to enter.  And in marched our soldiers!  Some 250 guys from various units, all returning to their families.  They got into position, and we saw Matt!  He had spotted us long before we saw him!  The news people had caught me pointing Daddy out to the boys, and later they interviewed us.  We made the news, even though they called him Captain Mark Hamrick (even after having him spell his name for them!)  Back to when they were standing at attention.  The Rear-D chaplain prayed and then someone told the soldiers,  "Thank you for your service, fall out!"  And the boys were off!  I didn't get a hug for at least 2 minutes as the boys were all over him!  I am not complaining!  It was a beautiful sight!  

Corie and Yvonne were on camera duty, taking video and stills for me!  I was so thankful that I didn't have to lug a camera along with me!

We kissed, hugged, and it all still felt so surreal.  This is when the news crew asked if they could ask us some questions.  This was just for Hayden!  God worked this out just for him!  Our friends, TJ and Nick were interviewed and shown on the news in NOV when he returned from Iraq.  Then a couple of weeks ago when we went to welcome some other friends home, Hayden saw the news crews interviewing soldiers and their families.  Hayden has mentioned a few times that he hopes we get on the news.  We got to the SEC long before the news crews and claimed our spot.  The news crews ended up plopping right beside us, and videoing us off and on even before the ceremony officially began!  We were their featured family! At the bottom of this blog is a clip I recorded from the TV.  Not sure how to view it not in reverse!

The Hamricks together again!

8:03 pm - We leave the SEC as a whole family! 

If you recall, I took a picture just like this the night he left!  One day I'll find the CD I've burned it on and post them side by side!This tent housed all the soldiers bags.

We arrived home and enjoyed showing Daddy all the neat things we had done to prepare for his return.  The boys had "Friday Night Movie Night" and slept downstairs.

Saturday we woke up lazily, had breakfast, and then Christmas.  

After we got ready we headed out to get Matt's real Christmas present...a Blackberry Storm (I'm a little jealous!)  We spent the entire day driving around in our van marked with all the tacky notes I had written all over!  People gave us thumbs-up and waved!  It was fun!  We had lunch at Noodles, and they gave us 2 free meals and 5 free drinks!  There are people out there who are just hoping to show their appreciation!  It is amazing what a wave or a "thank you" does for a soldier!  

After running errands all day, we headed back home and the boys spent the night at Super Woman's house.  We told Yvonne we were planning to leave for church at 10:00 am.  At 10:18 she sent me a text saying the boys were ready to come home but she didn't want to send them without having heard from us.  That text woke us up!  OOPS!  We had slept in!  This is what it is like for those who have no kids!  

So here we are, the boys have each taken their turns on the PlayStation 2, and we're about to eat the Tortilla Soup I made.  (Thanks, Hollie for the recipe!)  

We are loving being a family again!  Matt said he still feels sort of like a guest, until he gets his dresser drawers sorted out the way he wants them.  (He left them this way, but now has other clothes he prefers.)  Also, I'm not asking him to do certain chores around the house for 2 weeks to let him get settled in and see how we have changed.  It will be easier for him to watch and see how things run around here and jump in rather than expect that we do things the same way we did back in December of 2007.  

God is good...reintegration has begun and we are thankful for your prayers!  

LOVE YOU!

~Jen

Keep your hands inside the ride at all times...

This is what you hear before the roller coaster begins moving.  It is also the point where if you scream loud enough, they will let you off.  At this point, you have waited in the line and the anticipation grows to a point that seems almost unbearable.  As you sit in the seat and lower the bar that is intended to keep you safe throughout the ride, you may wonder if you have made a wise decision.  While they are giving the instructions, you have a last moment to jump out before the press that button that starts the journey.  

We are there.  The adoption agency has given us the warnings and the instructions.  And we are at the point where we are to begin paying for things.  (Not that one can put a price on a child or, even more importantly, on obedience to the Father.)  We think there might be an issue with a particular medicine Matt has been on because China has very strict rules about who can adopt their children.  For example, you have to be a certain age, under a certain Body Mass Index, they even ask if you have any facial deformities.  We simply can't lie about the medication, but we hate to proceed with a part that will cost us financially if we will most likely be denied.  

As a result of this I have felt a bit deflated today.  I know God talks to us...He reveals His will to us.  If this is the end of our adventure, even though we never even got the safety belts latched, why all the confirmations and heart yearnings for a daughter from China?  

I trust His plan.  But I'm a mommy who feels like she's missing a child, and Matt feels the same way.  He is comforting me and reminding me that God will make a way if it is meant to be.  He said this might just be one of several hiccups along the ride.  My calm, cool, and collected husband is right and I believe that if God has a plan for us to adopt, it will happen and in His timing.  However, He may simply have placed this desire in our hearts as a way to remind us of our own adoption into His family.  At this point I don't know.  

Until then, however, we will focus on the time of reintegration we are facing!  And speaking of that, I can't believe Matt flies out of Liberty in just five or six days! (Remember, it will still be several days after that before he gets home.  Don't worry:  I will post it here and on facebook as soon as I have specific information!!)  WHOO-HOO!!  I can't wait until we are sitting together at the dinner table and eating as a family.  I've left Matt's bedroom slippers by his side of the bed the entire time.  The post it notes he wrote for us before he left in DEC 07 are still all over the house.  I bought a 4-10 CAV car magnet that is currently attached to the fridge so it doesn't get faded on his car in the meantime.  So many tiny things that are about to come full circle.  

***  I wrote this on 5-29-09, but had to run it by Matt before posting it.  Today, however, I have received the most amazingly sweet email from Matt with all the encouragement I needed and no longer feel deflated!    Here are parts of it, to leave you with both of our points of view regarding this roller coaster:

 I know God will provide, even if it's another biological child. I have always wanted a little girl that looks just like you, but maybe with curly blonde hair.

I don't have a lack of faith, but I just can't see God telling us to jump into that much debt.  He is big enough to work it out, or to give us a biological daughter, or son for that matter.  I know you are deflated, and I am too, but I do have a peace about it. I have no idea what's going to happen, but I am ok with that.  We have to be careful that this pursuit doesn't adversely affect our marriage.  We are not in any rush.  People our age are just now starting to have kids and we 

already have three.  I believe we will have another child sometime in the not so distant future.  I want to spend the next couple of months focusing on you and the boys since it's been so long since we've been together.  

I love you so much.  I love your mother's heart...it's one of the things that attracted me to you long before you had Hayden.  I know that heart is breaking because of the longing for a daughter.  I wish I could heal your heart, but I know Jesus can and he wants to.  I think the place in your heart that longs for another child will be filled one day, and I don't think it will be that long.  I love you, beautiful.  One thing I do know, if we do have a daughter she will have me wrapped just like you
do.  I love you, babe...5 days until I wave goodbye to Baghdad. 

From One Adventure to Another

So we stand here at the end of one adventure and the beginning of another. Matt is due to come home in just a couple of weeks after being in Iraq for over 14 months. We are ready to end that adventure, though the time has been truly blessed. We have already begun the next adventure...our journey to bring a daughter into our home! As I write, we have filled out the preliminary application for Bethany Christian Services. Our next step is a physical and blood tests which will determine whether or not China will even accept us as an adoptive family. Soon I will write the journey we've taken this point in how we chose China, but now is not the time.

We are so excited about this adventure and pray that you will join us in prayer. I know God has His perfect timing and that with my finite mind, I can't even comprehend what He has in store for us, but I know His plan is going to be amazing!

We love you!
~Jennifer, Matt, and the "three big brothers"