
This blog posting is in honor of a wonderful new book written by a great friend's little sister. Katherine Willis Pershey's book, Any Day a Beautiful Change, is a touching memoir of her life as a wife, mother and minister. Katherine's book can be found at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Chalice Press. I downloaded it to my Nook. :) Here is the link to her blog: Any Day a Beautiful Change
A Karahalis Family Change
A Beautiful Change is happening in our lives right now. We have been an active duty Air Force family for 18 years. We are well aware of the crazy, moving life style we live. We move every few years to begin a new life at a new base in a new city. This means a new church, new schools, new friends, and basically a whole new life.
But this year our change is different. This year my husband is leaving for a 12 month remote tour in Greenland. In fact, he is already gone out of state for training and will leave for Greenland in another month. The kids and I are staying put while he is off on his arctic adventure. I cannot even begin to anticipate the changes which will happen for our little family over the coming year. I know there will be challenges in the months ahead as we adjust to not having Daddy around to cook Greek pizzas or take the van for an oil change or play RockBand on the Wii with the kids.
On Sunday morning I had a glimpse into how the kids are changing and adjusting to life without Daddy. Thea announced on Saturday night that she would be cooking Sunday morning breakfast. Greg usually cooks pancakes before we head out to chuch. I had no idea what Thea planned to make us all for breakfast on Sunday.
At 8am on Sunday morning she leaped from bed to run downstairs to the kitchen. Thea is almost a teenager, so any time she gets out of bed before 9am is a small miracle. Once in the kitchen she preceded to make steel cut oatmeal, she cut up strawberries, she filled a bowl with brown sugar and then she set the table complete with full glasses of milk.


Thea was quite proud of preparing the breakfast for the family. Sam and Georgie were enthusiastic about their older sister's first attempt at a preparing a whole meal. The oatmeal disappeared quickly and it was quite delicious. :)
I can see that this year will be filled with surprises as each of the kids takes on additional responsibility in the house. While I know that it will not be an easy year. I know that with our faith in the Lord, our friendly and helpful Air Force Base of neighbors, and the love of our families that we will change and find strength. I am confident that at the end of this year that our beautiful change will be a family who has discovered the blessings of a being relying on each other and finding happiness when we can.