We're having a...

GIRL!!!

Daniella's going to have a little sister!!  We are thrilled knowing we're getting the gift of another beautiful daughter, and glad for the positive medical report from today's ultrasound!  Thanking God today for His blessings and perfect plan! :)

Meet our 2nd daughter...

 

and her cute left leg...

 

 

Feel free to send name suggestions our way! ;)

Moens invade Fort Jackson

This past weekend we welcomed our first visitors -- Moen family members!  Dan's parents, younger bro, older bro, wife and 3 beautiful daughters stayed here at the Fort Jackson Inn for the July 4th holiday weekend.  It was a wonderful time of fun, sun and family; I don't think I could've imagined it going any better!  Daniella LOVED being with family, especially her cousins... especially Julia, her cousin closest in age & size :).  This video shows the cousins playing together before we all headed out to experience the Water Park on post together!

At one point in the weekend I said to Dan I didn't feel like we were in the army in SC anymore, but felt transported to a random vacation destination with family.  We didn't do anything super glamorous, just swam, ate (a lot), played together and laughed a ton -- it was perfect!  Having people close to us catch a glimpse of us in our new army surroundings (although still quite temporary here in SC) was important.  They attended the chapel service we go to on Sundays, stayed in identical suites that we're in and met classmates of Dan from the Chaplain School.  One highlight was Dan baptizing his oldest niece, Marissa, at Weston Lake here at Fort Jackson; what a beautiful morning and memory that was!

The last night of the weekend, the girls played together before bedtimes in our suite.  Daniella was having the time of her life!  Check out this video of Uncle Dave trying to teach her to catch a ball... about 30 seconds in you'll hear a loud gas-passing - that would be Daniella.  The hysterical laughing afterwards would be me (some people never grow up!).

I felt refreshed being around people who have known us all/most of our lives and beyond just the last 6 weeks.  Their visit reminded me of the importance of our families as well as the blessing it is to have a shared faith in Christ and encourage one another just by being together.  The biggest compliment I received came from my loving mother-in-law when she told me I'd come a long way to be able to discuss the realities of potential deployments down the road.  I was reminded of how that possibility seemed unthinkable just a year ago.  For that I praise/thank God as He continues to work on my heart and is stretching me for His glory. 

Another Moen cousin to add to the mix, coming to a Moen household not too far from you... November 2011!

Moving forward... to the Zoo!

This past week marked the completion of CIMT (Chaplain Initial Military Training) for Dan - the first 4 weeks of Chaplain School which is most like a 'Basic Training' month.  It's the more physically rigorous of the 3 months; hopefully his schedule will become a bit more routine going forward.  We're all really excited about this as it indicates we're 1/3 of the way through our time here at Fort Jackson!  Not that we're wishing it away, but we're looking forward to being a bit more settled than living out of a hotel.  Daniella and I got to watch Dan's 'Beret Dawning Ceremony' Friday morning which indicated the completion of these 4 weeks.  They were granted permission to now wear the Army beret rather than the patrol cap they'd been wearing.  Ironically, for the Army's birthday this week, the Chief of Staff of the Army gave the gift of no longer having to wear the beret but instead wear the patrol cap (which many feel is more comfortable, and provides a bit of shade over the eyes, etc).  Soooo the ceremony was a little anticlimactic :).
















We took advantage of Dan not having to march or train this Saturday morning by taking Daniella to the Riverbanks Zoo.  We all had a really great time!  It was fun to do an outing together as a family and Daniella is the perfect age to start appreciating the zoo. 

Unlike the Bronx Zoo, which is HUGE, this was much smaller in comparison and we hit up the more exciting animal exhibits by 12:00pm.  Perfect timing as we were able to get back home for Moen naptime (them, not me) ;).  Below are a couple of photos and videos that highlight Daniella's morning... enjoy!

 

Dan in action

This past Saturday morning the 4 platoons of Chaplains and Chaplains in training competed against each other in a formation competition and we got to watch!  Below is a short clip of Dan's platoon (1st platoon) strutting their stuff.  You'll see Dan in the front line, 3rd solder from the left (I zoom in on him).  Check out their fancy marching skills when they interweave themselves... they were the only platoon to pull that off.  Unfortunately, 1st platoon didn't win because another platoon was given extra points for some creative additions.

The rest of the day was spent with Daniella attached at the hip to Dan, she couldn't get enough of him after his long/busy week...

 

I couldn't resist jumping in and getting a family shot!

 

Hope you all had a good weekend; we did! :)

I hear you God

Ever feel like the same message keeps popping up in your life?  I can recall certain specific moments in my life when God pointedly asked me the same question of whether I was going to follow His leading.  In high school, I keenly sensed God guiding me to live/learn in a Christian environment so I chose to apply to only Christian colleges.  During my time as a student at Gordon College, there was a specific message in a chapel service in which Jill Briscoe explained greatness as God sees it and then gave us the opportunity to stand if we wanted to commit to that kind of life.  I stood, strongly sensing I had to but not fully understanding why.  In more recent years as Dan and I have prayed and taken steps towards military chaplaincy, God's been clear about 2 things... go army specifically and don't be afraid.  "Trust me, step out." 

Right before Dan got the call that he was accepted for active duty army, I had purchased Max Lucado's book "Fearless."  Perfect timing.  I've been chipping away at it slowly wanting to really take it all in.  Today Daniella and I went to PWOC's (Protestant Women of the Chapel) summer bible study, and they're doing John Ortberg's book "If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat."  If you haven't read it, you can just imagine what this book is about by the title.  Again, perfect timing.  Is God trying to tell me something?  Prepare me for something?  I want to be ready, ready to step out, to not be afraid, to trust Him with whatever He allows in my path.  I don't want to get through this life, I want to find God's hand in every part of the journey and live it fully.  It sounds easy enough to say, doesn't it?  I just can't deny God's loving and knowing hand orchestrating all this because He cares about me. 

So no Daniella pics or videos in this post, just a good reminder to me of God's calling on my life specifically, as well as Dan's.  Thought I'd better jot all this down here as part of our journey and to give God the glory for all He does.  Thanks for reading :).

http://www.maxlucado.com/fearless/

http://www.christianbook.com/want-walk-water-youve-the-boat/john-ortberg/9780310228639/pd/28638

Army disco?

This past Thursday we went to our first Army family event... "Baby Loves Disco" dress-up dance party!  It was super cute, to say the least.  Daniella took a little while to warm up to actually dancing on the dance floor, but by the time we had to leave she had to be dragged off!  It was sweet to see families together, some parents were still in their ACUs (Army Combat Uniform) due to coming straight from work. 

This coming week will be a busy one as Dan will have a few very long days and late nights due to some training exercises.  I'm filling up our calendar with a PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel, a military ministry for women) summer Bible study starting up this week, a toddler playgroup, dinner with relatives passing through and my first South Carolinian prenatal appointment for babymoen #2.  Looking forward to some adult interaction and fellowship; hoping all goes smoothly for each of us!

An Early Fort Jackson Morning Part II

Below is the 4 part video of the rest of our early morning watching Dan.  (I had to divide the video into 4 parts in order to upload it here.)  The 2nd and 4th video clips include Daniella's attempts at imitating her daddy; we enjoyed this and hope you do too!

An Early Fort Jackson Morning Part I

Daniella woke up earlier than usual this morning so we were hanging around coloring and drinking milk once Dan left for the day.  Seeing him and the other chaplains lining up across the street for formation, Daniella and I put our shoes on and ran down the hallway to catch the elevator downstairs.  We raced to the corner with our cameras over my shoulder to try to catch a glimpse of this part of training!  It actually felt pleasant outside, temperature-wise... probably because it was before 7am.  Below is a short video of all 4 platoons of chaplains reciting the Soldier's Creed.  Out of all those chaplains (about 140 or so) only about 11-12 of them are actually going active duty... the rest are reserve chaplains and/or chaplain candidates still enrolled in seminary.  

I took a longer video of them marching up the hill chanting, but I'm having trouble uploading it unfortunately (I think it might be too big a file).  If I can, I'll post it asap.

A New Adventure Begins

Even though I'm almost 32, married almost 10 years with almost 2 kids (one due in November), in many ways I feel like I'm just starting out. My husband, Dan, was recently accepted as an active duty chaplain for the Army. We are living out of a 1 bedroom suite at an Army Inn at Fort Jackson, SC, for the next 3 months while Dan completes his Chaplain Basic course before moving to our first active duty assignment at Fort Drum, NY. With no home and no friends (yet!), we are starting over. One would think it's a scary thing, but I don't feel fear. God has so beautifully and specifically opened doors leading us every step of the way!

It's been interesting transitioning from civilian life to army life. So far most folks are pretty helpful, but there are certainly some who don't really want to take the time to explain the millions of acronyms that become part of everyday language here... it can be hard to keep up at times! Met a navy wife today who said deployments are harder on the spouse when the kids are really young, but harder on the kids as they get older. She made a good point, one that I'll hold on to in the coming years.

Here at Fort Jackson, I'm mostly looking forward to investing in some kind of community. Daniella and I could certainly use some interaction beyond each other!