Break-In is OVER!!! WOO HOO!

Well, Drew is officially done with all "training" and "extended Academy" schedules and is ON HIS OWN! woo hoo! The probation period is for the first year. So, his year will be up at the end of next January, but break-in is over, praise the Lord! We were so blessed not dealing with the worst of what break-in and the FTO's can offer. Drew did have a trying third phase, many clashes personally and professionally with his FTO, plus it was A Shift and therefore the shift with the most crashes, therefore LOTS of reports. He was extended for 10 days, but that helped him perfect his report writing and get more familiar with the beats. But, last week was phase four...and as of Friday, May 22nd Drew had his first over-time shift, which was also his first shift off of break-in, and back on graveyards.

God is SO very good to us. To see the ways that Drew has been stretched through break-in, but what God has provided and spared us during this time has been amazing. Drew has worked so faithfully, and we are finally digging out of the whole that has been created by the last year or two of our lives, and he is being rewarded for his hard work and endurance. The amount of expenses poured into supplies for the job is still ridiculous like at the Academy, but God is faithful and continues to provide. As always.

Drew is, of course, on graveyards. However, the wonderful friends we have made that are at our office (and from Northern Cal), Nate and Shelley, are on our schedule also. The last two night Drew and Nate have been able to work together and have loved it! The get along so well, and are very open with eachother. Again, thank You, Lord for your amazing provisions!

Break-In...Phase 2...graveyards...

OYE! we are exhausted!

graves weren't too bad the first few days anyway...but once this past weekend hit, we really started feeling it! Drew had friday off (which meant he got home around 7:30am friday morning, but didn't have to go in that night), worked saturday, then had sunday off...but his saturday shift was like this: left the house at 6:30 pm, started his shift at 8:30, DIDN'T GET HOME UNTIL 11:30am Sunday!!! ya...
luckily, he did have the rest of sunday off, but that meant he ended up sleeping until about 5pm ish! and he has work mon-thurs this week. last night's shift (technically monday) was long and he didn't get home until around 9am...so we slept today until about 4pm, and had two-and-a-half hours to make food and get ready for him to head back to work! ...wow...

the last two times he's worked he's come home so "late" that he'll call and say he's on his way, i'll head to bed to wait for him and i end up SO asleep by the time he gets home, i never hear him come in! this morning i rolled over and he was there and it SCARED me!

thankfully, he has his two "days off" together this week (fri-sat) so it will hopefully feel like we've actually seen eachother before next week (A SIX DAY STRAIGHT WEEK) starts!

i'm hoping and praying that Drew doesn't get sick, his FTO told him that each time he switches schedules he gets really sick the first day or so. but this phase of break-in ends at the end of the month...two more weeks! then, hopefully we'll be able to get on the A shift for his finally break-in phase and we'll have a slightly more normal schedule to juggle...

charting...

well, here we are...day 25 of cycle, DPO 5- and my temp spiked today???...charting, etc is weird. but i'm excited. i feel like i'm taking charge of the issue rather than being spiratic and hoping for something to happen.

i know it'll take at least a couple months before i even get the hang of the charting, and next month i plan to go see the doctor...but things are moving, so that has really kept me from wanting to test every day :D

DH is great, he's excited too and encouraging. we finally feel ready, not just that it's what we want.

...praying...

...so...

Well, now that life has somewhat settled down (heh, right!) and we are now SOMEWHAT financially comfortable and we have fantastic health benefits! Drew and I decided, we want to try for a baby.

Drew and I have been wanting a baby, well since we got married really. Which is strange, it was almost scary how naturally the 'baby' thoughts came within weeks of the wedding! However, God has had other plans...hind-sight is 20/20 and He knew it was not time for us to start a family. When we first got married, we were both working a lot and barely getting by...we did have a miscarriage (only about 5 weeks along, but still), but that would have really stretched us! We then moved to Rocklin thinking we were possibly going to be there permanently and we could start a family. But within a month of moving there we began the CHP process and a year later Drew was at the Academy (all that time would have been BAD timing and really hard on us- emotionally and financially). Now, life has eased up. We have great benefits, we are financially 'comfortable', and slowly getting beyond the whole the Academy created. Plus, the deep desire of wanting to be able to get pregnant and have a baby, and be able to start our family has hung on me so long...God has really shown me that I do have a heart to be a mother. I think if we had gotten pregnant right away and everything went well, it would have just been what happened and we would have had a baby. (As horribly disconnected as that sounds) But over the past year-and-a-half, my yearning for a baby hasn't turned into anger and only sometimes is disappointing...it has become a realization of how much I desire to be a mother, to have a baby. And through this I have come to understand more clearly that babies are such a precious miracle and a gift from God.

I know, I know...We just moved, and my mom is in Auburn and I'm in Huntington Beach! Trust me the issue has plagued me for some months now! However, (though I'm aware that we will most likely NOT be moving from here before 2011, and that we may not even go straight to NorCal at that point) aside from our location, our "timing" could not be better! Financially, health care, my schedule, less stress (easier pregnancy, hopefully), and Drew and I have talked about it and don't feel like we can wait another 2-3 years. I can fully admit that I have been struggling, and though God would pull us through, I would continue to struggle with "well I'd like to wait, but I'm really ready!" But, it's not like us saying this means tomorrow we'll have pregnancy announcements in the mail. This just means we've talked and want to "try".

Considering neither Drew or I have really done anything for ourselves in the way of health care since we were married, there's a lot of things to check into and get taken care of first. Also, the "planning" part of trying......that takes a while to sort out (as I am quickly discovering). I'm also realizing that many couples try for a year or more when "trying" before they actually conceive. ...and...considering my history (one confirmed early miscarriage and hormonal imbalances) and that we haven't been on birth control since about a month after the wedding...I think it will take us a little while before we are really capable of even saying we're "trying"...

BESIDES! God's timing, is God's timing. If we try and it's not His timing, we won't be successful. If He thinks we're ready, and sees us fit...it'll happen. And it will be a wonderful miracle.

Any prayers offered up on behalf of this issue would be greatly appreciated. I know it's a long, hard, and emotional process, and something I've already been breaking my heart over! God's perfect timing, health, and stamina are what we desire.

...it's been a while...

I'm amazed at how long it's been since I've maintained this thing. I'm sure no one even bothers to check it anymore! My journaling energy, while Drew was going through the Academy, was redirected toward journaling TO Drew at the Academy. So I'll try to catch us up here...and leave alot of details out I'm sure.

Well apparently we were only about half way through the Academy when my logs trailed off the map. So much has happened since then! We've done alot of living in the last 5 months! Drew graduated the California Highway Patrol Academy on January 23rd, 2009 The month of January was very full, and we were so full from the support of our families and by God's provisions! I can't even begin to fit into words, how real and active the God we serve is! Christ Jesus is alive and moving and He has made Himself more clear to us through this huge "process" that we have been pushing through than I believe either of us have EVER experienced before! Through the perfect timing of necessary plans falling into place, to the financial provisions that He has made so clear is in control of, to His good and perfect timing of when and how to affirm Drew.

God is Good! All the Time!
Graduation was amazing, a very overwhelming experience of emotions and the most real feeling of "commencement" that I have ever felt. Drew and I both were so over-come by this feeling of the ending of something that was so strange and foreign, but had become our everyday life...to the beginning of a whole new life, new life-style, and a whole NEW strange and foreign thing! The support of my family at my parents house after graduation (thank you for everyone who came and supported my husband) was overwhelming. It was a feeling that I truely cannot express in words. I was so humbled also, my husband...this man I love...just worked for SIX MONTHS really without a break to conquer not only himself but the "newly-wed" rut we were in. And he did it for us, for me...how amazing that man of mine is, and how amazing that God saw fit to bless me with him. We got married and had fun, worked hard, and were getting no where...my husband was discouraged that he wasn't being the 'provider' he felt he should be. Now look at us! I'm not saying that we are sitting pretty, or that my closet is full of new clothes...FAR FROM IT! But, God has provided everything...He allowed me to lose my job just before the Academy-as catastrophic as that sounds, we wouldn't have made it through the Academy if I had been working!!! Now, finally an Officer, my husband is able to provide for us (even in the higher living expense bracket we are in now), and we are more comfortable than I remember being since we've been married. Praise the Lord!

The day after graduation, we packed up my dad's truck and trailer (breaking both of our parents and siblings bodies in the process), loaded that thing to the point of being a LOW RIDER...and left for Southern California the very next day. That's right, another "only God knew the plan" situation. We move to Rocklin to move potentially permanently, one month after getting up there Drew applies to the CHP, a year later he's living at the Academy in Sacramento (life would have been rough if I'd still been living in Murrieta), and six months later we are moving back down to Orange County! OYE!
Whew! Our house is becoming more like home, we are getting more and more used to being "locals" in a beach community (not that it took alot of adjusting). And my husband is still working his little bottom off for us. But again, thank you Lord for freeing up my schedule...it seems ridiculous that I am not getting a job right away, but for one thing- why push it if it's not necessary? And right now, it's not necessary. Plus, Drew is changing schedules every couple weeks...for a month he was gone from 11am to 12-1am...now for the next month he's gone from 6pm to 6-7am! If I worked, we would never see eachother, he would not sleep (he doesn't sleep well without me there particularly during the day) and our "days off" would most likely be very lonely ones! Thank you Lord, again!!!

Another PRAISE BE TO GOD, my husband feels 'comfortable' with himself, the career he's in, and the money he's making. This has helped his ego a bit I'd say! And he comes home, talks about his shift and says "I love my job!" Wow, breath of fresh air!

We are currently on graveyards, which is proving not as difficult as we thought, but in a couple weeks when he has six straight days, we'll see! Drew is on phase two of three during 'break-in' and time is flying!!! We've been here almost two months now. The Lord has blessed us abundantly with our living situation, with our LOCATION, with the office, with the FTO's (field training officers) Drew's had, and we are so humbled by what God has been showing us.