Girl #4 is here!

On April 27th our 4th girl made her arrival. All is well and I am doing better than ever. This is the first child I have had on the military's dime and I must say I was impressed. Living in Germany I had the choice to have the baby at a German hospital or the military hospital, both would be 100% paid for. I chose the military hospital and am glad I did. The only downside was that at 24 hours I checked out of there. Usually I like to stay for 48 hours. I left because there was one bathroom  with 3 toilets and 1 shower to share among all the patients. I had to wheel my baby down to the bathroom with me whenever I needed to use it. There was no nursery so the baby had to stay with you at all times.

You don't get much individualized care at your weekly checkups unless you choose to see the same doctor or mid wife at each appointment (Yes, the Air Force has mid wives!). Seeing that there were a dozen doctor's I tried to see a different one as much as I could so that on delivery day I didn't have one I never met, which is exactly what happened. You get whoever is on duty. It was completely fine though because he did a fabulous job and I was extremely pleased with the whole experience.

As far as whether J is getting out of the military...it's looking more and more like YES. Now the question is when? I'll save that for another post when I find some time between nursing, changing yet another diaper, and snagging a few minutes of sleep!

J's 4 years are up

This winter marked the darkest number of days in Germany in over 60 years according to Yahoo News :) I believe it. We have made the best of it and took some weekend trips to cities nearby. I'm glad Germany has finally allowed spring to show up.

I'm 38 weeks pregnant and expecting our 4th little girl anytime now. I'm not eager for this little ones arrival. Life has been busy and I feel like I have much to do before she makes her debut. To add to my stresses J has thrown me a complete curve ball!

In May J's commitment will be up. He'll have served in the Air Force for 4 years. We can sign up for another 2 years in May and get a $20,000 bonus. OR, he could not resign but continue to work for the JAG through next summer when we're set to PSC (move) and then get out of the AF. OR, we could wait til next summer to accept an assignment to PSC to a new base but then we would gain another 2 year commitment and have forfeited the $20,000 bonus. If we want the bonus we have to say yes, NOW. Even if we say we want to stay in for 2 more years next summer we would have lost out on the bonus.

As of 4 months ago J and I both told people our "plan" was to make a career in the Air Force. J enjoys everything he does at work. There is not one good reason he can give as to why he is feeling like maybe he should get out but yet the feeling persists. When we talk about the pros and cons the only thing we can come up with is, if he were to get out he could specialize in a specific area and we wouldn't have to move around so often. Except, the moving around part we also view as a pro, at least I do. I like seeing new places, meeting new people, experiencing different cultures etc.

So it's decision time. I am grateful for prayer. It was prayer that changed my heart over 4 years ago from NOT wanting J to be a JAG to desiring no other job BUT the JAG. I have LOVED every minute and have been the HAPPIEST I have ever been in my life these past 4 years! With that said, I know the Lord has a plan for my family and if He tells us there is another path for us then we'll follow it because we trust Him.

It is scary because J has ZERO prospects. He hasn't been job hunting and we live overseas which makes that process even more difficult.

Maybe we won't get out of the Air Force (I'm crossing my fingers that we won't ;). Maybe these feelings J's having are just the natural course one takes when it's time to make a decision....to ponder other possibilities. We will see.

The Mrs Claus Affair

On Saturday and Sunday my little family delivered Christmas cheer to 9 women whose husbands are deployed right now. The Mrs Claus Affair raised $1200 and provided Christmas gifts to 17 women.  It was such a wonderful experience for my family as we delivered gifts to these women who had no idea we were coming. Many tears were shed and much gratitude was exchanged. We thanked THEM for their sacrifice and their husbands service to our beloved country. Here are just a few responses women left us. (Some women weren't home so we left their gifts on the doorstep.

"My name is Jen. I live in Germany and just received some gifts on my door step. I want to apologize for not being able to get to the door. I was talking through skype with my husband who is deployed right now. I googled "Mrs. Clause Affair" and found who you guys are and your mission. It made me cry. :) Thank you for the thoughtfulness you guys bring. I am still very unsure how you got my name and address, but I am going to guess it was from my husband. :) I don't think there is anyone else that knows my address here. I didn't get to tell you thank you when you were here and I am sorry. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. "

"I came home today to find mystery packages in my driveway from Mrs. Claus Affair… So I googled it..." This is really touching!! Thank you thank you for making my day today by having mystery packages waiting for me!! So very excited to open them on Christmas Day! Very sweet!"

"You delivered gifts to my daughter and I today. I want to say a million thank-yous! This has been one rough week in particular, and you really put a smile on my face. I’m not used to anyone showing they care like this. We have been in the military 17 years and this has been the most caring squadron and group of people here in Germany we have ever been around. You are so sweet and thoughtful."

My friend Annie and her family delivered gifts to the other 8 women and I'm so grateful I have her as my friend and that we were able to pull this off. I'm grateful to each person who helped us raise money and wish each one of them could have seen the women as we embraced them with love and gifts.

This is what the Christmas Spirit is about. Seeking those who need to feel Christ love for them. Happy Holidays to each of you!

This Colonel Rocks!

I wrote a post last year (that I later deleted) about J's then SJA (Colonel boss). It was no secret that he was not the most desirable SJA to say the least. Anyways, I wrote a post comparing our first SJA to our second one. It was night and day. The first one took the time to know not only J but our family. He made sure office functions happened with families, checked in with me personally etc. Then we came to Germany and had a completely different experience. The SJA had no idea who I was when I walked into the office nor took the time to hold office functions or helped facilitate office camaraderie, etc. I had a reader write me a lengthy comment saying how that is silly to compare the two because Germany's office is much, much larger and it's just plain impossible for an SJA to have the same kind of relationship with me or the Captain's as J's first SJA who was running a much smaller legal office.

Well J has had a new SJA since this summer and....HE IS AWESOME!! Just like our first SJA was. He knows my name, takes time to know our family (the whole office even threw me and two other wives a huge baby shower), holds regular family functions and cares about his Captain's. To top it off J gets a shopping day next week. Yes, his SJA is giving each Captain a free day off to go Christmas shopping!

My faith in amazing SJA's has been restored!

Update regarding assignment choice

One of my readers who just got accepted to the JAG Corps had this to say.

"Also, in case you weren't aware of the changes, they now only provide one (instead of two) options for first base assignment. Also, I guess their policy now is to only give you 24 hours to decide. Thought there may be some others reading your blog who are interested to know that."

So be prepared when they call to make a quick decision.

The Mrs Claus Affair

Christmas 2011. My girlfriend and I sat with our families around the dining room table gazing at the what remained of a perfectly fabulous holiday feast. Everything about Christmas had been fantastically memorable; from the nativity skit starring our children to the frantic last minute gift wrapping after tuck-ins. The entire holiday was almost perfect. Almost. We had invited one of our girlfriends to join us for Christmas dinner since she was not only newly wed, but her husband was newly deployed and both their families were an ocean away. "So what did your hubby get you this year?" I asked in my best I'm-nosier-than-you-are tone. "Nothing," she replied. Wait, what? "What do you mean nothing?" "Actually I did get a package from him in the mail this week but it was something he'd bought himself and had shipped home..." What could we say to that? This story has been repeated hundreds of times all over the world by wives of service men deployed for the holidays. Deployments are hard enough on a man. Throw in Christmas and shopping (which most men hate) with hundreds or thousands of miles separating them from malls and families and what is the final Christmas result? A nice phone call. Not a purse or a Kitchen Aid, no massage or two months worth of housekeeping. Men who are fighting for our freedom don't always have the time to make sure Santa remembers the sherpa lined boots or the Brighton charm bracelet. That's where we come in. The Mrs. Claus Affair is dedicated to taking care of the wives of deployed service men during the holidays. We're not out to cure breast cancer (although that would be kind of awesome) or build houses for the homeless, and we don't want to save the world. But we do want to make sure that we teach our children the importance of serving others, especially mothers and wives who are hoofing it alone and, in many cases, have been overlooked. Our goal is to raise enough money through donations and fundraisers to make Christmas something special for some of the women in our local community. We don't need to save everyone, but we'd like to make a real difference this Christmas for somebody. We want women to have something to open on Christmas morning. We want them to feel remembered. Through nominations we're hoping to find a list of women to bring together and celebrate with this Christmas. Not through mass bulk gift giving, but something with a more personal touch. We're more devoted to the experience than the numbers. And if you don't live in our area and want to participate, join our movement by locating a wife in your area and get her a gift to open on Christmas morning. Just sign it, "The Mrs. Claus Affair" and send us a letter telling us about your experience. Anyone can be involved. If you would like to donate or participate in one of our local fundraisers, or if have someone to nominate, please contact us at themrsclausaffair@gmail.com.

You can also vist TheMrsClausAffair.blogspot.com to donate!!

Air Force JAG Core still very competitive

This is a quick post to say hello and that I'm still alive! We found out that we are expecting a baby in the spring. Between being super sick and a crashed computer I have neglected the blog but hope to get on track again very soon.

On another note, it looks like the JAG Core is still very competitive. At the last JAG hiring board only 5% of those who applied were accepted. If you were part of that 5% be very grateful!