Missing Joshua

I have been quiet on the blog. As some of you may know, Joshua was accepted to join Alert Academy Unit 56. Even though he was accepted we didn't know if he was going to go until the day before he left. It was a very trying and emotional time. Joshua went for his physical on Sept. 26th. We thought it was an open and shut thing. The doctor would sign off and we could move on with getting things ready.

But I'll tell that story next. Right know I want to focus on yesterday. I was writing this up on my Homeschooling6 Facebook page when I thought I might as well make it a full on blog post.

We dropped Joshua off at Alert Academy in Big Sandy Texas yesterday at exactly 4:00 P.M. It was one of the hardest times EVER. He's been away for a few months at a time in the past but it was staying with Auntie R or his grandparents.

Leaving him this time was so different knowing there is NO family there, nada, he's on his own. It was also hard because I KNOW that he will be stretched physically. Alert's training is very similar to military style. Some of the guys joining the military have said in some cases it's more physically demanding than boot camps.

He'll be stretched emotionally. For the nine weeks he's there we won't be able to see him. He's allowed two phone calls from what I am understanding. Yup, I'll be sitting by the phone all day on the days he's allowed to phone.

We can write of course so I plan to write him daily. I can send emails that they will print and give to him and I can send letters. What I like about this program is there is no T.V. time, video games, cell phones and such allowed.

Spiritually, I know both Joshua and I will have a closer walk with God. I know we both will be clinging to his Word. With Josh there will be no mom or dad, grandma or grandpa to ask something or just visit or chat with. I know he will go through a period of missing that, and that is when he'll need God the most and draw near to him. Me too for that matter. I was telling Annette that I think this is going to be good for both of us spiritually.

I'm his mama and knowing what he's going to go through hurts my mama heart. BUT I also know it a good thing. I'm praying and praying some more.

In fact this morning at about the same time Joshua would be waking (and I'm sure they are not saying, "Joshua, your coffee is ready", like his mama did (wink)), I woke too. God set my alarm, it was raining super hard and the rain woke me. First thing I thought of was Josh. I prayed for him. Prayed for strength for the day, prayed he'll look to his heavenly father, prayed that he'll remember his dad's wise words (Lupe took him out to breakfast yesterday, just the two of them), oh, I prayed for many things concerning Joshua. It was a great way to start my day. I finally was able to fall back to sleep around 6:30 or so.

I will share more later. Right now I need to get an email sent off to my boy =)

P.S. Are you all seeing big spaces between paragraphs? If so I'm not sure why Blogger does that. When writing it all looks fine. Ugh, makes me so mad. I did copy and paste from my FB page. I think that's why but it's frustrating because in order to fix it I have to make all the paragraphs as one.

Update: I squished all the paragraphs together. Hope that will help.