8 hours

Tirzah and I moments before seeing him!!

I don't think I have ever spent a more lovely 8 hour span of time in all my life!  What a gift it was to be with him!  Thank you for covering us in your prayers.

Needless to say, Daniel was incredibly handsome!  He had lost a few pounds, most definitely, but he reminded me of what he looked like during his pre-football days.   Just lean and good lookin!!  We spent the time just being together and breathing in one another's presence.  Tirzah was an absolute doll and blessed her Daddy by remembering him!  She was all smiles for him and had much to tell him throughout the day.  Just look at her in the picture above... she couldn't keep from staring at him like: "this is my Daddy!"

One of the largest aspects of our time together: eating.

In the first hour alone Daniel ate:

A jumbo smoothie from Smoothie King
at least 1 dozen cookies
at least 1 dozen biscotti
1/3 of a very large Challah loaf
4 Krispie Kreme donuts...

He for sure slowed down after that initial hour, but he kept plugging through all the day long.  "Just keep a steady flow" were his exact words!  By dinner time, he could hardly eat much of the Italian Pork Stew and afterwords, he felt so sick her contemplated making himself feel better (you know what I mean??), but after resting a few minutes while giving Tirzah her bottle, he felt much better and was able to down a whole box of Reese's Pieces on the way back to base!

This is from the field... his ongoing list of all the food he wanted to eat on this 8 hour pass:

Kirspy Kreme, ice cream, Oreos, Fawn's meals, gummies, Dunkin Donuts, Doritos, Swedish Fish, cranberry walnut cookies, cranberry orange biscotti, Reese's Pieces, bananas, Red Vines, Hit cookies, homemade pizza, breadsticks from Little Ceasar's, burritos with grilled steak, hamburgers, pot pie, waffles, Nutter bar


We did what we could to check off the list and then all of a sudden it was time to have him back on post.  And so begins the second phase of Ranger School: the Mountains.  Daniel's prayer requests for this phase were:
* Conditions for his patrols: the instructor and his peer's attitudes (under hunger and lack of sleep they are hard to motivate)
* Physical protection as this phase is more physically demanding with wearing the ruck sack all the day long and climbing mountains every day
* Trusting in the Lord's plan... recycle or not
* To focus on this phase