Gone Again!

So here is a little update from the 10 days Natalie was home. She graduated from Parris Island on Friday, February 13, and flew home late that night. On Sunday, we had a family dinner and watched her graduation tape. Throughout the week we went bowling and hung out a few times all together. She was hoping to be able to stay home a more than 10 days and help the recruiter in the office, instead of leaving right away, but she found out mid-week she would have to leave on Monday. She left Monday, the 23rd and will be in North Carolina at Combat Training for 28 days. Then from there she goes to Rhode Island for her schooling. Which could be anywhere from 6-9 weeks, I think. She won't be able to come home in between since she only has 3 days to get from N.C. to Rhode Island. Then, after her school is finished, she finds out where she will be stationed. We hope she is doing well and can't wait to see her again. Here are a couple pictures from when she was home.

Private 1st Class Harris

Nat and Norene

Natalie and Her boyfriend Kyle

The Sunday night, before she left
Kaetlie and Auntie Natalie

Natalie Graduates Tomorrow!

Wow! I can't believe it, 13 weeks have flown by! Tomorrow Natalie will graduate from boot camp. We are so happy for her. She has done so well and we can't wait to see her.
Norene, Steve, Jeff, and Missy are all there now. They flew out earlier in the week so they could be there today and tomorrow. Today was family day, so they were able to go on base early this morning and watch her and her platoon do their motivational run. Then they were able to eat lunch with her and spend the day together. I am sure they all had a great time. Tomorrow morning she will graduate and then fly home later tomorrow night. They get in pretty late so we are having a party this weekend. She will be home for sure for 10 days but possibly longer. We are so excited to see her and are so proud of her. I'm sure she will fill us in on everything when she gets home so we will be able to post more about it. For now, we love her so much and can't wait to have her home.

This a picture of Natalie and all of the girls in her platoon! I don't know how well you can see the girls but Natalie is just behind the front row of girls sitting on the floor. Second one in from the left. I hope this is not the only time since they got there that they were allowed to smile! It did my heart a ton of good to see her sweet smile, I must admit.

The night before Thanksgiving, I was still at work and at around 6:15 p.m. my cell phone rang. I did not recognize the number but I was doing a job that I was able to answer it, so I did. To my surprise it was Natalie's Senior Drill Instructor. She said that herself and the other Drill Instructors had decided it would be ok if the girls called because of the Holiday. We were told we were probably not going to hear from her until Christmas, so I was very excited and thanked Srgt. Nelson for the chance to talk to her. The next thing I hear is "I MAMM"!! I figured Natalie was talking to her DI. Then she said it again. "I MAMM"!! I said, " Natalie, is that you? "I MAMM"!! was the response I heard. " Can you not really talk to me?" I asked. "NO MAMM!!" in a slightly shaky voice she answered. I was trying so hard to not cry and be strong for her. It took me the first 30 seconds of our conversation to understand how the game had to be played. I just wanted to talk to her so bad. I asked her if she was tired. "I MAMM!!" I figured by this time that I MAMM meant yes. I asked her if she was getting enough sleep. "NO MAMM!!" I asked her if she was getting enough to eat. After a slight pause, she answered "I MAMM!!" I told her how much I loved her and that I prayed so many little prayers each day for her. I told her that I would tell everyone here at home know how much she loved them. "I MAMM. . . I MAMM!!" she said. I asked questions the best I could with her answering them the best she could. I did not know if I would get her in trouble for keeping her on the phone too long and asked if I should let her go. "NO MAMM. . . NO MAMM!!" OK I said. "They come and take the phone from you when your turn is up? " I asked. " I MAMM!!" We said what we could for about 1 more minute and then the last thing I heard was "HAVE A GOOD EVENING MAMM". I told her again how much I loved her and she was gone. Then I cried. . . . and cried. . . . and cried some more. I miss my little girl so much.

Well it got closer to Christmas and all of us were getting more and more excited that we would be able to actually talk to her. In her letters she sounded pretty confident that we could have a normal conversation with her. Since she called on Thanksgiving Eve, we figured that her Christmas call might come on Christmas Eve also, so that is when my cell phone became pretty much glued to me. The call did not come in that night so I slept (NOT MUCH) with my phone under my pillow so if she called first thing in the morning I would not miss it. All of the kids came over around noon and we ate food and played games the rest of the day. I started really getting discouraged at about 7:30 p.m. our time because they are two hours ahead of us and I know they don't let them stay up too much later than that. By nine o'clock our time I was pretty down in the dumps about it and realized the call was not coming. It snowed so much Christmas Day and into the night that all of the kids and grandkids were just going to stay over. We were still up playing games at about 2:00 a.m. on the 26th, when finally the snow plow came by many times and cleared the road. Everyone decided that they could probably make it home now, but the snow plow pretty much had packed all of the cars into the driveway. Steve got the snow blower out and dug the snow out from behind the cars. Andy was the only one that ended up staying over. He had gone to bed and I started thinking that maybe the circuits were busy like happens on holidays, if Natalie had tried to call. I got on my e-mail to see if maybe the Drill Instructor had sent me a message stating that the girls had tried calling but that some of them could not get through. There was a message from her but it did not say anything about phone calls. She said that Platoon 4005 wanted to wish us a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. She said they all were well. They had just completed "Gas Chamber and Repelling" day and that there was quite a bit of drama from some of the girls but they all were fine. Then she said that the following attachment was from the girls. I scrolled down on the page and there was the picture of the Platoon. It took me just a second to find Natalie, because my eyes were searching frantically to find her. Then I saw her and I wanted to reach through the computer and hug her.

Like I said earlier, I miss my little girl so much . . . . but it is turning into something more.

Of course I miss her terribly but I am so proud of her for having the courage and perseverance to accomplish the things she is doing and also that she is doing them so well. She is and always will be my baby girl, but now she is also a beautiful, strong young woman that I am very proud to call my Marine. "I MAMM!!!"

How Natalie is Doing so far

I finally have a chance to write a little bit. I have gotten a couple of letters from Natalie and just wanted to share a few of the things she has done and complished so far. In her first letter she pretty much just described how the living quarters are, how she doesn't get to have very long showers, and how some girls were going to get dropped because of their attitudes.
The last letter is were you could tell her spirit is up quit a bit more. She has done awesome. First off as per her words. If anyone has seen the gladitors on TV there is this one event that they have these sticks in their hands with padding on the end of them. They try and hit each other off the tower. Natalie calls it the Q-tip event. Well she had to do that and she won out of all 64 girls. She was on cloud 9!!!! She had to do swim week. Each of them had to do different stages and qualify in each one. They had to jump off a tower into the water with their camies, boots, daypacks, and rifle. She qualified in the highest stage she could at basic training. Only 2 other girls qualified with her. So once again she is doing awesome. In marshel arts she has been rewarded the brown belt. She has had to go into the gas chamber she says by far that is the hardest thing she has done so far. She stayed calm, but she said it was difficult to do so. She has also had to repel down a 48 foot tall tower. She took her DI (drill instructor) out at the bottom. Her senior DI was cherring her on. She has started her rifle week. She was really excited about that. She wants to get expert on that. I have no worries that she will get expert for sure. She says that they are gaining the respect of the DI's more and more each day. She hasn't been yelled at straight to her face. She says she hopes she never does.
She did say that one girl got some chocolates for christmas and quit a few girls went over to have some all them got into so much trouble. Natalie didn't go over and have any because she figured they would get into trouble. She says she can't wait to come home because she is craving things like ice cream, candy ,pop, crackers, and anything sweet she can think of. She says when we get to the airport the first thing we have to do is find an ice cream shop or smoothie of some sort.
She is doing great. I can't wait to see her on Family day. I love her very much. I am very proud of what she is doing. Missy Lewis

Getting To Parris Island

Natalie left on Sunday, November 16th, she wasn't able to take anything with her but her wallet, hair straightener, make up and the clothes she was wearing. She stayed in SLC and her flight was the next day. On Monday, November 17th Norene went down to the recruiter's office, to find out what Natalie was in for, and he said he didn't think Natalie had left for the airport yet so he called the office down in SLC to find out. Natalie was still there and able to talk to Norene for a few minutes. She said she had just been sworn in and was on her way to the airport. She said she would try to call when she got to the airport.
Once she got to SLC airport she called and said she had made it and that she would call again when she got to the airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Once she got to Atlanta, she called and said she made it and found her gate and everything was good. She only had 30 minutes so she was going to hurry and grab a sandwich and get on the plane. If she was able to she would try to call when she got to the airport in South Carolina.
Well, about 20 minutes had past and Norene got another phone call from Natalie, and this was not a good one! She was crying and out of breath.... She had missed her flight!! Her ticket said gate V1 and once she got there it said it was going to Columbia. They changed her gate to V28. She took off running as fast as she could but didn't make it. She wasn't sure what to do and thought that she would be in so much trouble, we did too. Norene told her to call her recruiter and ask him what to do. Also, by now her calling card had run out so she had to use a random man's cell phone to make these calls. Her recruiter told her that their was a number to call if you miss your flight, so she did that. We were all so nervous about what would happen so Norene called the recruiter too. He said it happens all of the time and that she wouldn't be in any more trouble. Well Natalie called back, and she was able to get on a later flight and they said they would be there to pick her up when she got there. By now, Natalie had calmed down and found her new gate. There were about 5 other people at her gate that had missed their flights too. So at least now she wasn't alone. She told Norene she would try to call once she got to the airport but she didn't know if she could.
At about 11pm the phone rings and it was Natalie again, only this time she was calling from boot camp. She called and said "This is recruit Harris. I have made it to Parris Island." She said don't send her anything or try to contact her and that she will send a letter in 4-7 days with her address. Then she ended it with Good Evening. It was a very scripted phone call but at least we know she made it ok. This was a crazy day for everyone and we can't imagine what Natalie had to go through. We all just pray that she is ok and that she can adjust well to her new life as a marine.

Natalie . . . . .IN THE MARINES? ? ? . . . ! ! ! !

Well, the surprise . . . SHOCK, is more like it, of the year, at our household, came November 14th at about 10:45 p.m. Natalie asked if she could talk to me for a minute. She said she didn't quite know how to tell me, but the next thing I knew, I thought she said, " I have joined the Marines!" "WHAT,?" of course, was the first thing that came out of my mouth. What really knocked me for a loop was when I asked her when she was leaving, and she said, "Sunday afternoon, the 16th." Of course my eyes filled with tears. There was so much for me to process. I just grabbed her and hugged her and couldn't let go. I have two daughters and four sons. The first daughter became a firefighter, and the other joins the military. I guess that is what happens when you have four brothers born between you. . . . . . Not much time to play dollies and have tea parties together!!! I wish she would have told us sooner because all I could think of was. . . that is not enough time to say goodbye. During the few hours we had left with her before her departure, we all went out to dinner and to a movie. Sunday at noon we had a family lunch at home. At 3 o'clock that afternoon we took her to Logan to say goodbye and leave her in the hands of her Recruiting Staff Sgt. Wheeler. That goodbye was very hard for me. Once the whirlwind of my emotions had calmed down some, we had a chance to look up some information about boot camp at Paris Island, where she will be stationed for the next 13 weeks. OH MY HEAVENS . . . I try not to think too much about what she is going through. Natalie is a strong individual and I have no doubt that she will be remarkable. Our thoughts are with her always and many prayers are said in her behalf each day. If there is one thing I wish Natalie could actually hear me say every day, is that I love her so much and that I am proud she is a Marine.