We've MOVED!

If you've come to read the latest from Wives of Faith, you're in the wrong place! We've now RELOCATED to a brand new website that offers both our web content as well as our blog posts.

PLEASE visit us at

www.wivesoffaith.org.

We will be removing this blog at the end of the summer.

Don't forget to update your blog rolls and readers!! (The RSS feed for the new website is located at the bottom of wivesoffaith.org's homepage!)
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New website coming!

Hey everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that if you go to the www.wivesoffaith.org site today or tomorrow, you may get an error message of some sort. No reason to panic - we are in the process of launching a new version of the website which I am very excited about! It will include a couple of new features but the biggest change will be that our blog will now be part of the main website. The posts on this blog have already been exported over so nothing will be lost - and we will keep this blog up for a few months though nothing new will be posted here.

Our Wives of Faith email may also be down for a while due to the transfer, so if you send an email and get an error message, just know that the transfer is the reason for it and you are more than welcome to send it to my personal email, sara @ sarahorn.com.

Can't wait to show you the new site! I'll let you know when it's up!
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Seeing God Through The Tough Times

When I saw the Facebook thread today I knew I had to post. I have not posted on Wives of Faith in a while, and I really don't have a good reason other than I just haven't had it in me.  I may not be the best writer, but I love to share my thoughts, feelings and life experiences if I know it can encourage or comfort someone! So, please accept my apologies for hiding out in my cave!

Just to update you, my husband is an Army reservist and we are currently nine months into our first deployment.  I had an optimistic outlook going into the deployment. I put it all into God's hands. No questions asked. I completely trusted in Him to guide and direct our path over the next year. It was hard at first, but I continued on in prayer and faithfulness to God's will for our lives. 

I had a couple of bumps in the road...things that freaked me out pretty bad. Like the time when our home security system went off in the middle of the night, just after I had prayed for God to give me peace to help me sleep.  That was mere days after my husband had mobilized.  Then there was another time when a strange man showed up at my door with a stack of my mail he said he'd found scattered over a nearby busy road. It was covered in tire tracks. That was the day after our home security system event.  So I plowed on ahead charting my course and continuing to trust God, but unknowingly picked up a few bags of anxiety and fear.

As time went on, I found it more and more difficult to sleep at night. Darkness would fall and anxiety would rise like the summer sun, hot and ready to burn me. All the while I remained faithful in prayer, literally on my knees each and every night, but I didn't feel so faithful and I didn't feel so trusting. My prayers went from "I trust you" to "Lord, please help me." 

February rolled around and that's when things really began to get difficult.  Some of you may remember the big ice and snow storm we had in the midwest. It hit us strong and hard. We were without power for four days. I had my toddler at home with me and my family was three hours away. I was on my own. 

I had decided to move my daughters mattresses into the living room where I had the fireplace running (non stop...thank goodness for fake gas fireplaces). We slept quite comfortably under my down comforter and the moon light that reflected off of the snow and through the windows. The third night was when I took a turn for the worse. I was lying in bed making several attempts to fall asleep when I would startle awake. I felt kind of warm and my heart kept racing. I finally sat up and tried to gather myself. I couldn't help but to think about dying or the roof collapsing or a transformer blowing and catching the house on fire. I eventually got to sleep only to wake up literally drenched in sweat. My pillow was wet, my shirt clung to my body and I was shaking.

It was my first panic attack and it was awful. All alone in a dark, cold house miles away from family with my baby girl and I felt afraid. It was the beginning of a struggle that I'm still dealing with three months later, and I continue to fight off panic attacks on a weekly basis. 

I know God is there, and I still trust him with all of my heart. I am faithful in prayer, worship and communion. Even though I am going through some difficult times and my emotions are on a rollercoaster ride, I know that there is purpose and meaning in my life.  It's a hard thing to do and there are days when I want to give up and days when I'm to tired to pray.  Sometimes I don't feel like loading up and going to church. But I do it anyway. Even when I don't feel like it I just do it anyway.

So far, my faithfulness has been rewarding. It feels good knowing that I have a God who has carried me through the storms.

I hope that sharing this with you has helped in some way.  Maybe just knowing that you are not alone in some familiar struggles that come with deployment. I don't really enjoying admitting my weaknesses, but God is my strength in weakness and I want His glory to be revealed in my life!

Well, if you've made it to the end of this post let me know! I would love to hear from you! Let's share in this life we call the military together.

Hugs and Prayers,

Steph

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Write for Wives of Faith

Do you enjoy writing? I am putting together an editorial calendar for the rest of our monthly newsletters in 2009 and will be sending it out to our volunteer writers. If you would like to be included, please email me - sara@wivesoffaith.org.

Thanks!
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Happy Military Spouse Appreciation Day!

Today is Military Spouse Appreciation Day and to all of you military spouses out there, here's to a job well done and here's wishing you the best day imagineable!

A Day for You, the Military Spouse
(cross-posted at my blog)

A day where no uniforms need mending or patches sewn on;
A day where nothing breaks down when you are all alone;
A day when children listen and there are no tears to dry;
A day where there are no questions and you don't have to answer why;
This is the day I wish for you, the Military Spouse.

A day filled with peace and love and solidarity
A day where a phone call is just the start of the great day you'll see
A day when you realize that what you do has fantastic enormous worth
A day where for the first time in months you can breathe without the hurt
This is the day I wish for you, The Military Spouse

A day that's 24 hours closer to your loved one coming home
A day for webcams and Skype and soft I love you's before dawn
A day where there are no silly arguments, just constant mutual grace
A day filled with blue skies, happiness and faith.
This is the day I wish for you, The Military Spouse
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Book Giveaway Cup of Comfort for Military Families

originally posted Sat. May 2, updated Thurs. May 6

Thank you! We have our winner, determined by random.org, and it is:

*****~~~~~drumroll~~~~~*****

The author of Army Love Life! Please email me at pattie (at) writersremember.com with your address and I'll mail you the book soon.

Thanks to all who entered!

And a big thank-you from me to you in appreciation of all you do as a military wife. And you all absolutely ROCK!

Happy Weekend, fellow military wives!

It's time for another book giveaway here at the WOF blog!

I reviewed A Cup of Comfort for Military Families here a while ago, and while I enjoyed the book greatly, we're in downsizing mode here at Pattie's house. No, we're not PCSing! We are having some remodeling done, and this gave us the opportunity (in other words, I'm being strongly encouraged) to declutter. I lost my bookshelf as well (it nearly didn't make it during our last move, and it's been leaning against the wall for about a year--sideways!), so book storage is at a minimum.

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment and a way for me to get hold of you (either a disguised email address or your blog address)! That's all! Just a comment.

Deadline is this coming Thursday, May 7 at noon CDT.

To learn more about this book, please click here for Amazon.com and here for Barnes & Noble.com.
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Military Children's Book - We Serve Too!

I meant to do this last month during the official "Military Kids Appreciation" month, but I'm sure the information will be just as needed today as it was in April. :)

A publisher sent me a copy of Kathleen Edick and Paula Johnson's book, We Serve Too! and I wanted to let you know about it. I know if you're a mom, you're constantly looking for good resources that your kids will be able to relate to and I think this book is a good one to check out.

The illustrations are cute and I like how there are several pages that parallel what the daddy soldier is doing overseas with what the kids are doing back home.

In the back of the book, there is a great pullout sheet that offfers a list of "things to do while dad's away" and "my prayer for daddy".

Check out the website, weservetoo.com, for a lot more resources and ideas to help your children. You can also download coloring pages, free stickers and other activities.

Keeping in the spirit of Pattie and giving things away - :) - I'd like to give this copy away to someone, so share with us in the comments section your ideas or a resource that has helped you as a parent with your kids in dealing with military life and deployment.

I'll pick a winner a week from today - May 14 - so let your own blog readers know and spread the word!

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