TWO

..............September 10, 2001 I was 8 months pregnant. My husband was to leave in a few days to go to the desert to train. In the morning my sis in law was to fly to Kansas where we were living to stay with me in case I gave birth. In the middle of the night our blow up mattress (we did not have a real bed or mattress at the time) deflated. I decided to go sleep on the couch.

I woke up to a phone call from my mom in law to say that my sis in law cant come because the planes are all grounded.....we turned on the TV...and you all know what we saw.

We decided to drive onto the base to see all our friends because everyone thought was would start right away, we lived off base so it took us 3 hours to get onto base because security had to check every vehicle.

My husband left for training a few days later and I was not sure if he would come back or go straight to war or ?

I decided to go to my moms and stay in Oregon, only problem was the planes all were not running yet.

I called everyday to get a flight, about 5 days later a flight finally did not get cancelled. I tried to hide my pregnancy so I would be able to fly, and it worked! I ended up giving birth 3 weeks later!

My husband made it a few hours before the birth and got to deliver our second son on October 8th 2001!

One year later I found out I was pregnant with our 3rd son, and in April of 2003, my husband got the call to go to war...........we had two weeks before he left so once again we thought best I stay with my parents..........so we had 2 weeks to pack, and I was 6 months pregnant................

ONE

Is LIFE really so hard? People say LIFE is what you make of it. Can we train our brains to make it easier? Is it through experience that is seems easier? I am 32 years old and I seem to feel that God has allowed many trials in my LIFE to make me who I am, but I also seem to view LIFE differently.....

Honselty right now the relationship with my husband has been challanging, he is suffering from PTSD but we are growing and learning together. LIFE this year has been struggling in many ways....my father in law remains in a coma after suffereing a brain stroke in September 2009, I was pregnant with many complications and delivered 3 weeks early and suffered from post partum depression, my cousin 1 year older than I has stage 4 cancer and is undergoing chemo and radiation, I start my internship (270 hours) in the fall to finish school, my oldest son has ADD and we just found out may be held back. Not to mention being a mother of 4 boys and trying to keep LIFE normal! And of course finances are always a struggle.

When trying to explain what is happening in my LIFE everyone reacts the same...."WOW! That is a lot of stress!" Then it got me thinking....what is stress?....Stress by definition means to experience some sort of physical, mental, or emotional tension. OK...then yes I have stress, but stress alters your LIFE because we experience something out of the norm.....what if I train my mind to accept stress? Would LIFE be more simple? Could I handle more stress? Do I really need these things to happen in my life to make me who I am?

I think it all started in June 2000 when my husband joined the ARMY. We decided it would be a good opportunity to get his schooling paid for to help support our family (my oldest son was 10 months) and we were living with my parents. It seemed like a good idea.....then September 11th, happened.................