I've never written a blog before. I was standing in my kitchen, getting ready to start the seemingly never-ending pile of dishes, when I felt called to start a blog. I put my 8 month old daughter down for a nap and started immediately. The last few weeks I have learned what it means to truly give something to God and accept his daily grace, because now more than ever I desperately need to. My husband is the in the military, the Marine Corps to be exact, and as I'm sure you know military life is challenging, very challenging... Sometimes so challenging I just don't know how I'm going to get through it. My husband has only been enlisted for two years, but we found out a few months ago he would not be completing his term because he was "overweight" by Marine Corps standards. My husband is 6'2 and 255 lbs, so he is without a doubt a big boy, but he is more than capable of doing his job. He can carry someone his own size several miles, which in itself can mean the difference between life and death for someone during combat, but he also shoots a near perfect score on a range and can do so many other impressive things. So accepting that he is being "kicked out" of the military for something that is completely irrelevant in my opinion, has been one of those challenging things. We came to accept what was going to happen, found a place to live across the country, and started applying for college and jobs; we planned for months. Well Monday morning (2/6/2017), my husband found out he was not going to be kicked out of the military because all of his paper work was "invalid". They had done this once before. A year ago they told my husband that they had "lost" all of his paperwork, so he would have to start BCP (the Marine Corp's weight loss program) over, which he did. Now all of his paperwork is "invalid", so again he would have to start over. This would mean many more 24 hour duties, field ops, and of course another deployment. Planning and preparing our lives outside of the military brought us so much hope and joy after we accepted it, we were finally going to have the lives we wanted, and now that was taken away.

I've only known the news of my husband staying in the military another two years, and going on another deployment, 9 months this time, for four days, but by God's grace I'm okay. That's why I chose God's Grace as the name of this blog, because without God's grace I would not be able to handle my life being seemingly turned upside down like right now. I would not be able to handle my husband missing our daughter's first steps, first words, and possibly her first birthday. I would not be able to handle living across the country from my family (Ca to Fl, can't get much more cross-country) for the months leading up to the deployment and the months after (I will be going home during). I would not be able to handle missing him for another Christmas, another Valentine's Day, and both of our birthdays again. I just wouldn't be able to handle it on my own; but luckily I'm not on my own, I never have been. Since the day I was thought of by God I have never been on my own. He has never left my side, he has never let go of my hand, he has never stopped loving me, and he has never not given me enough grace to get through today's troubles as long as I'm willing to ask him for it. Thank God I am not alone.