A Trip Down Memory Lane...

So while going through paperwork in the office, I got distracted and started looking through old pictures. These pictures were from our first year in Germany (2003). It's amazing to look back at them and see how young we looked (Oba included!). There were so many memories of our time overseas -- including of our time with Jake. It's wild to see James with hair, Oba with no grey hair, etc. I was also amused by the quality of our whopping 1.2 MP digital camera at the time. My, how times have changed!

While going through the pictures, I soon got around to the ones from the start of our first deployment (early 2004). Man...so many emotions during that time. We had just lost our son and were getting ready to start a year apart. It's almost sad to think that now when James leaves for training or deployments, it almost feels "normal." I still hate it, but we're completely used to it. Crazy. Anyways...here are some that I found entertaining...

A young Obadiah! What a beautiful puppy...it's sad how much he's aged!

In Germany, we lived on the 4th floor. Oba would sit at the window and people watch all-day-long...

Half the time, he would fall asleep with his head resting on the ledge...

Such a big boy! And notice the hair on the hubs...

We no longer have this in the living room, but I'll never understand why he felt this was a great sleeping spot...

Fast forward to when we were pregnant with Jake, here we are at the Dachau Concentration Camp. Between the heat, the morning sickness, and the images from that camp...I nearly passed out at one point!

Ok...apparently there are only pictures of James. I guess I was camera-shy that day?

Where the prisoners stayed...

The gas chamber -- so awful!

Our time in Rothenberg...Man, I miss that city!

Here I am with some oversized preggo clothes on. It's hard to believe this was a few days before my water broke with Jake...

James bummed off some scrubs while we were in the hospital with Jake so that he wouldn't have to drive the 45 min back home to grab some extra clothes that night...

This was our first time leaving the house after recovering from the loss of our son -- obviously the smile is fake...

Of course, Oba always knows how to bring a smile (that was the same day)...

Among the pictures that I found, there were tons of James and Oba right before he would leave for 1-2 month long trainings in the "field." You can tell we were still struggling with the potty-training issue with the basset (hence, the newspaper behind them). Such a stubborn boy!

Not sure what's going on here, but I can't get over how young the pup looks...

And man...he looks like a kid! (I think he had just woken up and was getting ready to leave for a month of training.)

Another young lookin' hubs here. Hard to believe that was 7 1/2 years ago...

Someone was apparently done with the bonding experience and wanted down...

Before the deployment, we went home to Indianapolis for a visit with family. During that visit, we chose to take a night and get a hotel downtown to get away...

We also met one of our nephews for the first time on that visit. It's crazy to think how well we both handled meeting Alex vs. how we handle it now. After Jake, we were still so hopeful thinking that it was just a fluke and that we would have better luck with that second pregnancy, etc. Now, three flukes later, it's much harder meeting new nieces and nephews. We still love them to death, but there's more pain in our hearts. Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed our time with this sweet boy...

Ahhh...and the dreaded goodbye during that first deployment. James is right at the door to the bus looking back at me. What an awful day that was!

Then came the pictures from our first R&R. The basset looks SO young after his bath. It's crazy to think how much that poor pup has aged...

Last but not least...this is my favorite -- We used the self-timer to grab a little family shot while James was home. Oba looks like he has a huge grin on his face, ha.

Ok...I guess I should get back to work now. I love old pictures though. They bring back so many memories!!! I hope this time next year, we can look back and have pictures of little Samuel with Obadiah...