When I wrote my last Thoughts from the Cradle in September 2005, I did not intend for there to be anymore. I felt God had given me insights during a certain time and that time had gone. However, now I am back in Iraq and I am overwhelmed with thoughts from this “Cradle of Civilization”.

For those who do not now me I am an Air Force physician, my main job at home is to treat children with heart defects. When I deploy, I go primarily as a flight surgeon. My other skills of pediatrics and cardiology are used as needed. I have been sent to Balad Air Base in Iraq to serve both rolls. I will act as a flight surgeon, keeping fliers healthy and clearing the injured for aeromedical transport and care for Iraqi children who are injured and brought to our hospital, who require critical care skills.

I left my home on the 14th of January and the US on the 15th of January. I arrived in Iraq on the 18th. Leaving home for the second time was much harder than the first for me, my wife, as well as the rest of the family. The first time I didn’t know what to expect. What was it like to be gone for 4 months? How often would I get to talk with my wife and my son? Would I be in danger? Now I know and knowing made parting with me wife much more painful for both of us. As I thought of leaving, I was reminded of another great parting. This parting was not for months and was not even a parting of people. The parting I am thinking of and was reminded of during Christmas was when Jesus Christ left heaven and came to earth as a baby. He left the unspeakable comforts of heaven and came to our world. He left the constant fellowship with His father. He voluntarily and temporarily set aside many of His attributes as God to walk our earth in our vulnerable flesh. He left knowing that he was going to be in danger, He even knew how long he would be here and could foresee what His future held and still He came. When we as deployed service members leave our homes and feel loneliness, despair, and miss our families and comforts of home we are in good company. Jesus Christ the creator of the Universe has done the same

Then there was The Almighty God, the Heavenly Father who sent His son. For the families who are the senders; you have had to part with your husbands, wives, sons, daughters, moms and dads. The good news is you are in great company. The Almighty God knows what it like. He sent His son into a world that was much less comfortable than Heaven, knowing that His son would eventually suffer an excruciatingly painful death to atone for our sins. God is not a God who is far off. He is a God who is familiar with sending and being sent. He knows what it is like to give so that others may have life and that abundantly.

What an incredible plan of Jesus Christ and His Father to have gone through what we have gone through, so when we pray and cry out for help, we know we have a heavenly Father who is familiar with our state and can gently and lovingly reassure us from 2 Cor 12:9: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

I will dedicate “Thoughts from the Cradle, Vol 2” to a dear friend, LTC Mark Murphy. I met him in Iraq in 2005. He was like a brother to me and encouraged me as I wrote 42 “Thoughts” last time. He died shortly after returning home, but now is in his eternal home. I miss him.

My name is Kirk Milhoan. I sign as Duke, a call sign, in memory of the surfing pioneer Duke Kahanamoku and the beautiful beaches of Hawaii. I long for the day to once again be on a beautiful beach with my wife. There is a lot of sand here, but no beaches or surf and definitely no wife.

More thoughts to come

Solis Deo Gloria