Preparation seems to be the long running word in our house hold. As many of you know we are preparing (there is that dang word again!) for our first deployment. Kyle will be leaving here coming soon and we thought it would be a good idea to give an update to everyone on how the Clement family is doing. In order to prepare for this we have had to do a few things that a typical 21/22 year old married couple doesn't usually do; prepare a living will, advanced directives, power of attorney's, and other random miscellaneous things that make you look at your life and decide what you would want if a tragedy stuck.
While this seems to be a horrible thing to have to imagine, it has given us the opportunity to be grateful for all the wonderful things we are blessed with. We've traveled to multiple countries, have seen some beautiful things, have wonderful friends and family, and we are so excited to see what God has planned in our future!
The other day I called our bank to let them know Kyle's debit card expires soon and that we will need to get a new one before he leaves or have them send the new one super early so that when it does expire I can get it to him in time. I was then navigated to the "deployment team" to make preparations for deployment. They proceeded to offer us additional life insurance. Talk about the one conversation I was not prepared for.
Recently Kyle had to get the small pox vaccine among with many other vaccinations in order to prepare for leaving. I am not sure if you know what is involved in the small pox vaccine but for those non-medical field and non-military friends and family out there I thought you would appreciate a detailed description. The small pox vaccine is a live virus that is given to you by dipping two needles in the virus and rapidly poking (I'm sure it feels like stabbing) your arm in a particular spot 15 times. Once this has happened you are to cover the sight of the vaccination until it turns black and falls off. This sounds quite simple, however the time between getting the vaccine and it turning black and falling off is approximately 21 days. Kyle has to keep his arm covered for and wear a shirt at all times until this thing that is a puss filled pocket falls off. He also has the average side effects, headaches, fever, and chills. This wouldn't bug me too much since I'm not feeling any of them, however I'm tired of him turning the air conditioner off in our house!
Overall we are doing very well and the preparation is going well also. We do ask that each of you pray for our family. We appreciate all support and prayers, that come our way. We are both excited and nervous to see what the short term future holds. Thank you all in advance for supporting us over this time.
With Love,
Kyle and Amber (Mostly Amber since we all know Kyle didn't take the time to write this out!)
