12/15/2008
Below is the first post I made, way back in May of 2008. When I first began putting this site together, I thought I could make this everything to every parent with a child in the military, or at least link to sites that would help them. .
There are so many different sites out there with support information. I've removed pages, added pages, added a store....
Alot has happened since I started this blog - Traci has another grandchild, Judi's Marine is deployed again. The two Marines at the bottom of the page are now out and in the IRR after 4 years of proudly serving our country.
Wonder what the coming year will bring...
My First Post
5/04/08
As I sit here working on this website/blog, which is turning out to be much larger than I first intended, I'm looking through
all the pictures I have collected over the past 6 years and am reliving so many memories - boot camp graduation at Parris Island -
"There he is!" "No he's not, he's over there."
Airport sendoffs - "Will this be the last time I will ever hug him?" Hugged him
a little tighter... Deployment send-offs - I cherish that picture more than you will ever know, Laura!
Homecomings - the planning,
the excitement - where's everyone staying and are we all getting together the night before? Buying the plane tickets - then having
to change them because the arrival date changed, get to the area and then hurry up and wait and then they finally cross the bridge...
and those not returning with them in our hearts and pictures of them on our sweatshirts - bittersweet homecomings.
Leave time
- home for an engagement that surprised everyone except the bride's father - he had called to ask for permission. Weddings - "Let's
do it now instead of when you get back from over there, we'll elope if they say no" - then seven days to plan it. "Have you two thoroughly
thought this through? He could come home missing a leg and an eye or in a body bag..." (Yeah, I was that blunt.)
And Sis asking,
"When will you be back and when can you get leave so I can set our wedding date and will you pleeeease wear your dress uniform for
me?"
Vacation in Cali - "Now I know why you wanted your car out here!" Marine Corps Balls - extraordinarily handsome Marines
with their chests full of medals and their gorgeous ladies dancing cheek to cheek.
New grandbabies for Traci and Judi - their
Marines home from deployment just in time for the birth. Christmas in April - "No we aren't leaving the tree up until Easter this
time but I'll mail you one the first of November so it will be there in time for you guys."
And then... pictures of weapons
caches, Marines in full battle gear in 140 degree heat standing post at a checkpoint or crouched down on patrol with their rifles,
alert and ready; birthday party pictures with them in party hats with noise makers sent from a mom for her son's first birthday away
from home; hundreds of IMs saved from middle of the night chats.
Christmas tree in a tiny little room with cards from little
kids taped on the walls, their bunks in the background with flak jackets and rifles hanging off the end of them; and then...
blown-up
humvees, phone and internet lines down for a few days - we knew here at home something had happened, just not "who"... then the "all
clear"; visits to wounded Marines at Bethesda who knew my son;
a sadness so deep it will never go away from presenting a Gold
Star Banner to a friend; Patriot Guard missions - an honor to ride for the Fallen and an honor to stand with the Vets, flags at half-mast,
the cretins off to the side, our backs to them as we proudly hold our American flags as they hold their disgusting signs and sing
their disgusting songs as a small town that could be Anywhere, U.S.A mourns their Fallen Son; condolence books made as the tears flowed.
Then - five thousand Christmas cards on my dining room table for the recovering vets in the hospitals from Americans who truly
care.
Six years of pictures and memories... one of these days I'll have time to scrapbook them.
And in between all of this, daily
life kept on - work, vacations, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries... always counting down to
HOMECOMING!
eat...
worms.
We Marine moms are resilient... heck! We raised Marines!
A computer and a phone,
a sense of humor and a good friend...
PRICELESS!
Love and BIG Hugs,
One thing I never did though, was...
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