magical pregnancy unicorn

No.  I am NOT pregnant.  Yes, I DID have a marvelous "significantotherless" Friday night movie event with my classmate Julia last night. [ Her bf has recently relocated to GA for his first preaching gig.  Philip has officially embarked on a life-changing career adventure (more on this in a bit) that currently has him away at training. ]  Yes, we DID watch "What to Expect When You're Expecting" because we wanted to take full advantage of enjoying a movie the boys would only agree to watch under extreme duress.  The movie was silly in some parts, but nonetheless we enjoyed lots of laughter as we enjoyed a 2 hour break from focusing on the internship app process that is currently consuming our lives.  One of the lines I enjoyed the most was "she's like a magical pregnancy unicorn"  Well, today I felt like a magical internship-app avoiding unicorn.  Blegh.  Though, in 3 weeks and one day everything will be uploaded and in and I'll just be holding my breath for the next phase of the madness (interviews in Dec/Jan)

So that is my excuse for being MIA in the blogosphere.  Or perhaps I unconsciously do not want to remember a lot of details of this blur of a year.  Hahaha.  No, the truth is I feel grateful - despite the madness I feel in a good space right now.  I can't count the number of times in a week I stop to think "wow, I'm SO grateful I NEVER have to relive last year EVER AGAIN."  This year my clinical days are clinical days and my academic days are academic days.  I'm no longer having to leave the house at 5:30 in the morning.  I'm getting home before 8:30 pm.  I'm not driving a bajillion places in the tri-state area in a day's time.  I'm blessed.

About the boy. . . so big changes for the L family on the horizon.  God swung wide open doors to a very unique opportunity for Philip where he will be part of a program for the next four years in which he will be in the middle east for two - spending time working with a village somewhere in the Hindu Kush over the course of 2 years (he'll be in the US until this spring, a year away, a year back, a second year away with the same village).  It's a program Gen. Petraus started - very "hearts and minds" - designed to really begin to work within (rather than against) the tribal framework of Afghanistan and Pakistan.  This month Philip started what I affectionately call (much to his chagrin) "GI Joe School" and has started studying Pashtu.  The other night we were on Skype, and I heard for the first time, Pashtu words come out of his mouth and I knew in that moment our life had changed.  This opportunity is going to rock our world.  In incredibly wonderful ways and in indescribably challenging ways.  Philip is going to be a changed man on the other side of this journey.  The next four years of his career are going to determine how he spends the rest of his career (in the military or out).  This is just a huge game changer.  I'm ready and I'm excited and I'm scared.  But most of all, I'm so proud to be married to a man who is willing to give everything for our country, who is willing to sacrifice everything for a group of people in another country who he has never met.  

We had a last hurrah before everything kicked off last weekend and attended the Air Force District of Washington Birthday Ball.  It was a wonderful day to bid our farewell to Philip's squadron and all of the wonderful (and not so wonderful??? hahaha) people he's had the privilidge of serving with at Andrews.  It marked the end of one chapter, and the beginning of a brand new journey.  (and it was a WONDERFUL way to celebrate the news early in the day that I had passed my comprehensive exams *HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF!!!!!!!!!  thankGOODNESS for not having to spend an extra year in school/having to live through that horrendousness ever again in my life!!!!!!)

So while I still can't promise about increase frequency of blog posts until I'm on the other side of this internship palava, in time I am confident that in time I'll be back in the swing of writing.  The truth is that when Philip is away, blogging is a really useful way for me to process and metabolize what's happening in my world that I would normally share aloud in the precious little face-to-face time we have together.  AND, some of you may be interested to check out his perspective on his adventures:  www.felipestravel.blogspot.com  (personally, I loved the "your wife is fat" post ;)