Monday, October 05, 2009

New Perspective On The Military

My brother was in the military, we have friends who were and are in the military. I have always prayed for them and prayed for their safe return, but honestly...except for my brother, I was able to go about my day without much worrying.

To be extra honest, a part of me is happy to know that due to my son's asthma and hypoglycemia, he'll never be accepted into the military, so I'll never have to know personally how it feels to be a mother with a child enlisted.

Don't get my wrong, I am so proud of all the men and women who are protecting and defending me and my family, but I don't know if I could handle it as a mom. Maybe I could, but I'd rather not find out. Bad...I know.

However, I am almost as close as I'd want to be in regards to that. Ashley has a boyfriend who is a year older than she is. He is a marine, and he was been stationed in Japan until next February. After that, he will probably go to Afghanistan.

We have known this young man for several years...since our girls were freshmen in high school. He showed at the state fair, which is how we met him. He had a crush on one of them (or maybe both?) and would tease them and pick on them the way young boys do when they like a girl.

We knew this young man before his voice changed. We knew him when he was still short and scrawny. We've watched him grow up and mature. He came to us a year ago and apologized for any inappropriate or rude things he did when he was younger. His comment was "I was kind of a jerk as a young kid and I appreciate you always being nice to me when I probably didn't deserve it." Wow! We were impressed by that.

We didn't know until about a month ago that he and Ashley started dating last Summer while he was home on leave for a while. She feels so comfortable with him and said he's the first guy to respect her morals and to appreciate her for having them.

I "talk" to him sometimes on Facebook. She talks to him daily when he's able to have a cell phone or as often as possible.

Last Tuesday there was a bombing in the Philippines, and they believe it was the work of Islamic Terrorists. We knew that last Tuesday the boyfriend flew for a month to the Philippines. We heard that there was a soldier from Iowa who was killed in the bombing. I can't explain the knot in my stomach until I talked to Ashley to find that no, it was not him. His plane didn't arrive until several hours after the bombing.

Thank you God.

And to all you moms who have children who are serving....I have only had a taste of what you go through day after day. God bless you all.

1 comment:

Kelly said...

True, so very, very true.