A New Stage in Life

God Bless America!
May God grant PEACE to the WORLD!

The Zakis family has embarked on a new phase in our life.
We hope this blog will help all of you stay up to date with how Pete is doing and how we are doing on the home front. Don't ever hesitate to contact us.

On June 3, 2007 Peter left home for Ft. Riley, Kansas in order to augment an army unit that will be going to Afghanistan on September 1, 2007 for a year. For those that do not know, Peter signed up for the Navy Reserves right after 9/11. He has always felt a duty to serve our country through the military. We decided at that time that it was the right time for him to join the Navy through a program that would allow him to train near home.

Now, six years later, he has been activated. No doubt this news was accepted with mixed emotions. We are honored to be serving our country as a family. We pray and ask you to pray with us that our family will only become stronger through this period of our lives. We believe that God has a reason for every thing that happens. It is up to us to serve Him through this time.

The boys and I are missing Pete. Thankfully, we were able to visit him in Kansas during the week of July 4th. God granted us the opportunity to celebrate our 14th anniversary together as a family. Peter was able to show us where he is training and the places he visits. Ricky even had the chance to sit in the HumV that Pete drives. We feel more in tune with what Peter is experiencing. We had a fun four days visiting cities around Ft. Riley. We even went to a Wizard of Oz museum in Wamego, KS.

We talk to Pete daily and sometimes twice a day thanks to the cell phones. Ricky loves getting on the phone to talk to daddy. Once he told daddy, "I have an idea daddy. You can catch the bad guys with a net." Ricky knows that daddy is working with the soldiers to protect our country from the "bad guys." Paul asks for daddy by saying, "Uh dada?" with his hands up in the air. We tell him daddy went bye bye but he'll be back soon. He gets on the phone and listens to daddy and sometimes says a few of his words. He then says bye and blows a kiss through the phone. There are times when the boys fight over the phone to talk to daddy.

God bless you all!
Stay tune for more updates.