Day Zero: Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is never easy and in past experiences I have always been an absolute disaster before hand. This time was different. I was so peaceful and calm- so was James. I made James a little present to take before he left. I wrote some Bible Verse's on note cards and then on the opposite side put a picture of us- he has one for everyday of Ranger School...he only took phase one, the ring would be way too thick if he took them all.

Here are all of the verses that I gave him, this is the order he is suppose to read them in, so I am planning on reading them with him:

2nd Timothy 1:7
Philippians 4:13
Exodus 15:2
Isaiah 40: 27-31 (3days worth)
Deuteronomy 31:6
Matthew 17:20
Isaiah 43:1-3
Psalm 22:19
Psalm 18:16-18
Isaiah 41:10
Matthew 11:28
Psalm 27:1
1 Corinthians 10:13
Deuteronomy 20:3-4
Zephaniah 3:17
Matthew 6:34
Psalm 46:1
Psalm 18:32-34
Joshua 1:9

Last- here is the ridiculous story of our morning. This would only happen to us. We had plenty of time. Woke up at 7. Planned on packing up the car at 8:45. Leave by 9. Get him there before 10. Perfect? No. We get to post and James looks at me and is like, I forgot my ID... it was 9:20. This is why I have my sign right by the door...so I don't forget my ID! We had 40 mins to get back to post and the to the Ranger Training Battalion.... not going to happen. Except we decided to speed. I was on police patrol. Let me just say, we hauled it!! It was torturous. I thought I was going to explode. James spent all of his pent up energy focusing on not killing us on the road. Literally, by the grace of God, we made it to the RTB at 10:03...right behind 4 other cars. We found out that the 10:00 report time was for HCC and that the hard time for Ranger School was 1300. Talk about taking a load off our shoulders. We still didn't waste much time, said our quick goodbyes and he was off.

It was hard to drive away from the fenced in area with barbed wire coiling around the top. This is where he will be for the remainder of the week. and then he "jumps" into Darby phase. Safe right? One of the most important keys to passing Ranger is to not get hurt/medically dropped, so of course jumping out of an airplane (for those qualified) seems like a good idea. James would be airborne qualified. So, pray he doesn't break a leg.