Only 7 Weeks Left

Well, I am definitely growing. I feel like every week I can really tell a difference in how big she's growing. Tomorrow I will be 33 weeks. I have had two wonderful showers and have gotten so many great gifts. Olivia has about 50-60 cute little outfits. I am pretty sure I will have to change her at least twice a day in order for her to wear everything.

She is still very active. She gets especially active when I get ready to go to bed. I don't really know if that is a good sign for our future sleep. : ) Rob and I are counting down the days until he comes home. There isn't very much longer now. He should be arriving around the first of August. So please be praying that she isn't too early or too late.

For those of you that have sent packages. Thanks so much! He has really enjoyed recieving those. The address is in a previous blog if you are interested. There is a church here in Atlanta that has kinda adopted his unit and has 30 boxes on their way. He was teasing the guys about how he was getting so much stuff since it is coming in his name, but it's really for everyone.

What's Up

Hey guys...Sorry it's been a while since I last posted a comment, but the internet has a ton of firewall protections here and it took a while to get around them. So I moved out of the tents and into a 3 person pod. They call them pods here..they are metal trailors anywhere else. They are much nicer than the tents that is for sure. It's like staying at the motel six and getting upgraded to the Ritz Carlton. I went from having 65 roommates in the tent to only have 2 roommates now. So life is good. Time is flying by it's hard to believe we have been here for almost 3 months now. It is a topic of conversation almost daily. The heat is getting worse today the thermometer showed 125 and that was as high as the thermometer would go. Dust storms are crazy here also. We have only had one bad one and a few small ones. The entire sky turns a bright orange, it is a real sight. Olivia will be here soon it is hard to believe that in 2 months Summer and I will be holding our little baby. Well I must go I thank you guys for all your thoughts and prayers. Don't forget to call and encourage Summer in these two months of her pregnancy. I love you all.

"Above all others a soldier prays for peace, for it is he that must bear the scars and wounds of war" GEN. MacArthur

Bigger Belly... Less hair

So, it looks at though I am finally growing a belly. I am looking more pregnant instead of just chubby. : ) As you can see, I also cut my hair on Friday. I had decided almost a year ago that I wanted to grow it out and donate it to the American Cancer Society. On Friday, I finally had the 8 inch requirement, so off it came. I am very relieved. My beautician joked about how typically she would never cut a pregnant woman's hair in a drastic way, but she knew my intentions pre-pregnancy. She asked me several times if I was going to freak out or anything. Kinda made me laugh.

Overall, I feel really good. Olivia is VERY active!! She definitely takes after her dad. I had my glucose test a couple of weeks ago and everything was normal from that. I have started having more regular visits. I believe that after this visit next week, I will start going every other week. I will also go on a tour of the hospital this Sunday with one of my close friends here in Atlanta. Thanks Leslie!!

Rob is good. We get to talk almost every day. We even get to see one another on the computer some and that makes this so much easier. He is getting quite a tan and has lost some weight from the heat. He seems in very good spirits and is very anxious to come home for leave in August. As am I ready to see him. Thanks for all your support.

Sooo Hot

Hey friends and family. Sorry about the delay in getting a new post on here. I have been pretty busy as of late and things are starting to heat up here. So about the weather. Hot. Today the heat reached 115 degrees. Pretty much the only way to combat the heat is to sit inside the office all day until around 6:30 or so then venture out of your cubicle and embrace the night. Other than the heat, things here are good. I have a pretty easy job that has a relatively low stress factor. My job is to supply my company with all the equipment necessary to function on a daily basis. It is not the most glamorous job, but it keeps me safe and usually out of the heat. The meteorologist here on post said that last year the high temp was 149. Are you serious? That is crazy to me.
I hope all of you back at home are doing well. The reports coming in are saying that this WILL be a nine month mission and we should return home safely by December or January. For us that is great news. I hope that you are keeping Summer, Olivia and I in your prayers. They have church services here so I have been attending those. They aren't like the ones back home, but the word is still the same wherever you go. I think I am going to start working on a project while I am here. I spoke with a couple of the Chaplains and I am going to make a video on how soldiers worship over here. Hopefully I will have enough footage and pictures to put it together by the end of June. So keep this project in your prayers also. Well anyways I love you all and I can't wait to see you.
Rob

Rob Has Arrived Safely

Hey guys. I wanted to let you all know that Rob has safely arrived in Iraq. When I spoke with him today, he assures me that this next year will be a "piece of cake." That is his way of saying that it is totally safe and he feels confident that all will go smoothly. He was told that the only time they will have to leave the camp is when they are coming home for leave and when they leave for good. Not leaving camp is a positive thing to ensure his safety. Travel is when most soldiers encounter danger.

As of right now, he is living in a huge, air conditioned tent with many soldiers. They will have to stay in those tents until they can make room for his unit to have better facilities, probably at least a month or so. He said that the military is offering many activites for the soldiers to occupy what free time they are given. Tonight, there was a line dancing event. Needless to say, I don't think that Rob was going to that one. : ) He sounded in great spirits and very encouraged to know that in just three short months he would be back in Georgia to hold his new baby girl.

I feel very blessed at this point, the pregnancy has been smooth sailing. At 25 weeks, I am now starting to show a little more. Still not much of a belly, but it's definitely growing. She is kicking up a storm and you can even see my belly bounce with her little movements. It's definitely an unusual experience!

Below is the address if you would like to send Rob mail in Iraq. Thanks for all your continuous thoughts and prayers. We are so grateful for all the support.

Rob Hathcock
278th MP Co.
Camp Bucca, Iraq
APO AE 09375

IRAQ...HERE I COME

Well my time here in the states is over. I have been officially notified that I will be crossing the pond tommorow. I have a little bit of mixed feelings and some anxiety,but it is what it is. My time here at FT.DIX has been a very pressing and somewhat bittersweet. I have met some really awesome people here and as much as I loathe New Jersey I will miss some of it. The 18 hour days I will not, but like I said there are some really good people here. I don't know when I will be able to post another message, it may be a few days or so. The flight will be about 24 hrs or so because of a long layover in Germany. So i plan to occupy my time with sleep and dvd's. Support Summer and Olivia as much as possible while I am gone. I know tommorow will be really rough on her. One last thing.....An old veteran stopped me at the Gas station on post to thank me for what I do. He asked me how i feel about going over there to protect someone else's country. I told him it is my duty to do so. He then told me to trust none of them. I immediately remembered a quote I recently heard, "Your wrong if you think the joy of life comes principally from human relationships. GOD has placed joy all around us. It is in everything and anything GOD has given us. People just need to change the way we look at things." I think this is a very profound statement and it is very applicable to what is going over there. The people of Iraq will let me down I am sure. But the joy GOD is going to give to me while I am in country will never let me down. I love you all.

IRAQ....Not Just Yet

What's up friends and family. So my whole company left on the 25th and myself and one other soldier are staying behind. Not for good, but we loaded about 3 million dollars of cargo and I have been chosen to stay behind until the plane gets here to pick myself and the cargo up. So it will be another 10 days or so...which I have no problem with. So I am doing what every good soldier would do when they have no commander to boss you around..sleeping. I wake up when I am no longer tired and I go to bed when I am tired. Yesterday I was really bored so I played a round of golf. It has been a wonderful blessing. It's two less weeks I will be in Iraq. And that will always is a good thing.
As you can see Summer, Olivia, and I had the most wonderful time in Philadelphia. Wow..What an awesome city. We tried to do everything we possibly could and it still was a long 4 days. Olivia started Kung Fu fighting in Summer's belly and I felt her for the first time. It was such a powerful event in my life as well as Summer's. It was really special. If you guys can think of anything I can do here on Ft.Dix to pass the time I would love some suggestions. I am really that bored. Well any ways I love you all very much and thank you for your support and prayers.
Rob