Week 25 from AFG

Slow week this week for us with the holidays. Pretty quiet--nothing significant to report. We watched It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve, and had a Star Wars marathon on Christmas Day.

Thanks for all who included us in their Christmas Newsletters.  It is fun to hear how everyone is doing and to see your beautiful families.   

I've gotten a few notes congratulating us on our move.  Yes, we are excited. It will be fun.

Wish you all a Happy New Year

Christmas Blankets

I'm finally done with the blankets made for the kids.
ONE gets a Charlie Brown type of chevron blanket in Navy Acadamy colors.
TWO gets a fun shell puff in colors picked by Grandma.
THREE gets a boys rustic colored blanket that will go with just about any decor now and when we move this summer.

Week 24 from Afghanistan

I hope you had a good day and were able to enjoy a nice Christmas program wherever you were today. Things have gotten really quiet here. There was a bombing down the street earlier, but overall attacks are way down as Taliban sit tight for the winter. The climate has been a bit milder, and hopefully that doesn't allow more attacks, but there is snow in the mountains, and that is what makes fighting the toughest for them.

We are all waiting in anticipation for President Obama to make a decision on force presence here. I saw an article in the Washington Post saying he was considering a more rapid withdrawal.

Happy Anniversary

I always get flowers for our wedding anniversary. This year, even though he's half a world away, was no different!

Week 23 from Afghanistan

While normally I'd provide an update about things going on here, it seems a bit inappropriate this week in the wake of the shooting at Newtown, CT. We've had a lot of gun violence this last year, but something about the innocent children being gunned down is much different to me than the other incidents. Many of these have been connected to mentally ill individuals; while they are all tragic, in my mind it has always been a sort of matter of fact that in a free society, there will be people that choose to do horrible things and folks were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. As adults we take that risk--that by walking onto a college campus or into a movie theater,, etc, that something crazy can happen--that the odds of something going wrong are minuscule, and that we are willing to allow all kinds of freedoms because we are almost always safe. Yet children haven't made any such assessment and choice; the tragedy here is more palpable.

One of the guys in the office is a big gun guy, and he kept wanting to talk about this incident and gun control issues. The whole conversation was making me sick and I had to put my headphones on.

As I've thought about this and the nature of our freedoms, I have come to a completely different conclusion than I ever have before. Governmental power is derived from that which the social compact is willing to abdicate to them, giving up some rights and powers, that they might be better protected as a whole. At the time of our nations founding, a well ordered militia and a right to bear arms was a fundamental right, of importance to securing our liberty. There are lots of debates that are valid on both sides of the gun control issue. Ultimately though it comes down to a basic constitutional right. Those debates surround limits on that right. After Newtown though, I find myself wondering how important that right is. I would be personally willing to give up the right to bear arms, that the availability of weapons like those that killed those children would be significantly diminished.

It is a tragedy. I pray that the Lord will bless the families that have lost loved ones to feel of his love and protection for the deceased and the living, soften the sting of memories of the survivors, and lift the hearts and hands of bereaved family.

Otherwise, all is well here.

Cold Saturday Mornings

Thank goodness for propane heaters!
We got this a couple weeks ago and used it for the first time this morning. TWO's lacrosse game would've been too cold without it. The season goes through February so we're gonna be nice and toasty.

Week 22 from AFG

Another fairly quiet week. There was a sensational attack out east, and we had a hostage rescue overnight, but otherwise--nothing significant. We are at the end of the fighting season. They talk about fighting seasons out here because the border is so rugged with mountains and snow that folks tend to hunker down. So the "fighting season" is over, and though there will still be some attacks, it drops off a lot. It will pick up again in March.
Its starting to look a bit like Christmas. There is snow in the mountains and people have decorations up on their doors and in their offices. I got a box from home today that had a mini Christmas Tree in it that I set up next to my desk. It would be nicer if we had Christmas music playing all the time, but it doesn't really work for the office dynamic. It is times like this you miss home the most- the traditions and good family time.

Christmas

I love Christmas time. I love the lights, the smells, the excitement, the music.
I also love to decorate the house with all the wonderful glitter and jingle.

Raising an Aspie Kid

News came out this week about Asperger's term being dissolved and the disorder being officially absorbed into the Autism Spectrum.  As the parent of a child with AS, I'm not sure I like this new development.  I'll have to wait and see what happens. But it was nice to hear that Congress passed legislation mandating TriCare cover ABA therapy.

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Week 21 from AFG

I trust you had a good week.  I really don't remember much of mine.  Everyday is so much the same.  Nothing really exciting to report.  

It has started to get cold out here and the people here must be burning everything they can get their hands on because the air in the evening is thick with smoke.  When we lived in Turkey they burned lots of coal so there was a lot of smog, but it wasn't at ground level like this stuff.  I'm sure all of us living here will suffer ill effects from the air quality.  They even gave us a letter for our medical records to show that the air quality was toxic in case we ever have lung related issues.  Crazy place.

Me out with a couple of my guys from *** (stateside base).  They are currently on a team in southern Afghanistan.  This was the village I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago--the one sympathetic to the Taliban, built in a pile of dirt.