March 01, 2004

IN A NUTSHELL

My name is Sarah, and I am a 32-yr-old military wife currently stationed where the kudzu is lovely and the soldiers wear the kind of beret you'd find in a secondhand store. My husband deployed to Iraq with the 1ID as an armor platoon leader in OIF II (2004-2005). He then made the interesting switch to his basic branch (Finance) and quickly decided that he wanted a more direct involvement in the War on Terror. He finished Civil Affairs training and a Farsi language course, after which he got deployed to...Iraq. Heh. The Army makes wonderful sense. He returned in Dec 2008 and then spent the second half of 2009 in Afghanistan.

I have written a lot over the past two years about trying (unsuccessfully) to have a baby. We got pregnant with our first child last year but had a miscarriage in December. Our hope was to get pregnant again before my husband deployed. Happily, I found out I was pregnant four days after he left for Iraq. Sadly, we lost that baby too. And for us, the third time was not the charm either. We got pregnant again via IUI when he came home, but that baby also didn't make it. That's when I found out that I have a balanced translocation of chromosomes. We were all set to do IVF with PGD when we got pregnant right before my husband deployed. I spent his nine-month deployment pregnant and he returned ten days before our daughter was born. She has put a real cramp in my blogging style.

I'm also an avid knitter -- see my knitting archive -- and I belong to a group that makes and donates preemie caps to the local hospital. Here are a few of my favorites.

I wrote a few posts in my early blogging years that explain who I am. I'm a military wife but I secretly wish I were in the Army (Something I Can Relate To and Still Thinking). I support the War on Terror (Pacing). I lean to the right politically, which is something I came to on my own (D'Souza and Nature or Nurture?) and which I hid from my friends for a long time (A Long Time Coming). I have lived in both France and Sweden before, and we just got back from living in Germany for three years, but I'm a diehard American through and through (Freedom, American and Homelandsick). I also constantly have to keep myself on track and remind myself of what's important, which I refer to as the laser beam (Anger).

Thank you for checking out my blog. The only thing I ask is that if you disagree with me, do so in a polite way (Manners).

[This post updated 1 June 2010]

Posted by Sarah at March 1, 2004 07:59 AM | TrackBack
Comments

I wish your husband didn't have to be where he is. But I thank him for joining and doing his job.

And you, for doing yours.

Let's just all hope everybody gets to be home and have a home soon.

Posted by: Danny at January 22, 2005 08:03 AM

What is GROKKING? Thanks!

Posted by: American at May 20, 2005 06:57 AM

grok

To grok (pronounced GRAHK) something is to understand something so well that it is fully absorbed into oneself. In Robert Heinlein's science-fiction novel of 1961, Stranger in a Strange Land, the word is Martian and literally means "to drink" but metaphorically means "to take it all in," to understand fully, or to "be at one with." Today, grok sometimes is used to include acceptance as well as comprehension - to "dig" or appreciate as well as to know.

Posted by: American at May 20, 2005 06:58 AM

Hey there.

Tim Fitzgerald sent me your way. Not able to drop by daily but wanted to say hello. He seems to think we would hit it off well! We were neighbors in Giessen.

I have attempted a blog as well but it is WAY behind because we pcsd back to the States in Dec and hubby was redeployed to the sandbox with 2/11 ACR.

Blessings!

Holly

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Seems like a good idea to me. .free software download

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