Monday, January 24, 2011

North Carolina

My sister calls where she lives "the sticks" because there's not too much around her in the towns around Camp LeJeune, but I disagree.

Where she is, there is life.

On one side there are deer (lots of them) and on the other side there is the ocean brimming with big waves. In between the two there are oodles and oodles of military families, just like hers, doing what they can and squeezing every precious little bit out of their most precious commodity together: time.

It's not a question of if they are going, but when. And then the next question is, "Where?"

In most cases, it's Afghanistan.

It's a story told over hundreds and thousands of years, of a man off to battle, and when it's a story just told, it's familiar. It's not until you see the men and women getting ready, when you see the "Welcome Home" signs on the front porches or the signs from family that decorate the entrance of the base that say, "I can't wait to meet you daddy!" and names of real people, real loved ones who are missed. Right now. It's not until you hear the explosions shake the windows and gunfire in the distance; the sounds of our men and women in training and it's not until you see a wife break down in a grocery store line as a checkout clerk tells her, "Thank you," that it really hits home that we still have troops, real men and real women, fighting for us. Right now.

I was only there for a little over a week and all I can do is come home and think about it and pray for them and their safe return but for my sister, it's her reality, it's her life and it's the lives of her husband and their friends.

It is life.

This is not at all how I pictured this post going, it was actually going to be about happy pictures of our trip to see my sister but it's obvious what's on my heart as we've left.

So today I am sending you all blessings, troops and families, and soon, my brother-in-law.

And a big, huge, thank you.

For I have seen your sacrifices.

5 comments:

AnnG said...

please tell your sister than you for me!! glad you got to have a nice vacation...

april said...

Your sister and brother-in-law are now my heroes, too.

Joanna said...

Wow, thank you for sharing this. Ditto to the other comments - your sister and brother-in-law are true heroes!

Bari said...

Because you inspire me and I puffy heart you, I've passed on a Stylish Blogger Award to you! Go find it on my blog: livelaughrunbreathe dot com.
MWAH!

Anna said...

Boy, was this a doosey.. I love you. I miss you. I couldn't manage through the deployments and the shaking of my house and the days without him, without you. You are the best, most supportive sister anyone could every ask for!

Post a Comment

Talk to me goose!

(ps. I love responding and if you have your email set on your blogger profile I can!)

My Favorite Quotes

"Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it." - Bill Cosby



I tri because one day I didn't believe in myself. And then one day I did.



"I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of a man is to live, not to exist." - Jack London



Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong- sometimes it's letting go.



"Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History."- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich



Live life PASSIONATELY, laugh OUT LOUD, love UNCONDITIONALLY. - from my spoon rest.

"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire." - Ferdinand Foch