Vacation: Ten Days of Leave

My wife and I have been so blessed to be able to find ourselves on ten days of leave. Beginning on July 20 and ending on August 1, we are able to enjoy sleeping in until all hours of the morning, eating ourselves sick, and enjoying the love of our families.

On Friday, July 20, I was dismissed at around 1200 hours. That’s noon for you civilians. It couldn’t have come too soon. We set out for Kentucky, which we have been calling home for the two years prior to my enlistment. God has been so good to us to give us so many friends and loved ones in this state. We were able to stay with some friends on Friday night and Saturday night. I spent time with my college friends, professors, church friends, etc. We were able to see so many people during the two days that we were in Lexington. We had a great time. I played an Age of Empires II tournament (A video game made for the PC in 1998) and for the first time ever…I lost. All through my college career, we got together and played the game a lot. My partner, Jeff Baldwin, and I had never lost…until this past week. It was still tons of fun! It brought back a lot of memories from the past few years to see the college (Commonwealth Baptist College) and all of my friends.

After church, we headed north for Illinois…the Promised Land! We arrived late in the evening and settled in for the night. We fellowshipped for a while and then headed to bed after our seven hours hike up into the north.

On Monday, my Dad bought two wave runners on eBay. He got a really good deal on them because neither one of them ran at 100% capacity. We took them out on the water to get a feel for them. He guessed that one was only firing on one cylinder, so he replaced the spark plugs right there on the river and it fixed it. Now it flies at 55 miles per hour. Quite fast for an old broken down 1994 wave runner. That was a nice five dollar fix. We replaced the plugs in the other one, and it sounds like it runs much better now, but we haven’t yet taken it to the water to try it. Hopefully we will get to do that on Friday. There are, of course, a few other things that are wrong with them, but it is amazing that they run so much better with such a simple fix. He got a REALLY good deal on them!

On Thursday, we headed to Burlington, IA to see my wife’s family. I love getting to see them. They are about the friendliest people in the world. You could not ask for a better set of “In-laws!” It’s a good thing, too. With as many “In-laws” as I have, they better be good. My wife has 16 siblings. Fourteen of them we have now met. In fact, we just met for the first time her brother named Tim. He seems like a great guy. My wife had never met him prior to this trip back home. What a blessing!

Well, I continue to wait on my orders. My current orders state that I am to arrive at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and report to the 82^nd Airborne Division for in processing on Wednesday, August 1. However, I have applied for a position with the 3^rd Infantry Regiment (Old Guard) in Washington D.C. I was supposed to find out if I got the orders changed on Monday. When I called my liaison, he told me to call back on Tuesday. On Tuesday, he told me to call back on Wednesday…etc. Today, he told me the same. Please pray that God would allow this in my life. I have until the deadline on my current orders, August 1. The man responsible for assigning me to this unit has told me that I can have the position. We are now just waiting for the orders to be changed higher up. We are now just hoping that the paper work can be changed in time for me to get in. Please pray!

God is treating us much better than we deserve in every regard. We thank Him for his goodness, and we thank all of you for your prayers and love. I will try harder to keep everyone updated on our status. Thank You.

In Christ,

Nicholas Z. Cardot