Coming home...and leaving.

As I sit here tonight giving thanks for the soldiers returning home this week from the sand, I also give thanks for the soldiers who are leaving this week for their time in the sandbox. What they do is not an ordinary thing - and is not a journey anyone should take lightly. Now I fully realize that unless you've walked in the shoes, a person can't realize the gravity of what this means to a soldier (sailor, marine or airman), and to his or her family. When your child calls and says, "we got our orders, mom" it puts a very real face on the war. I've been down that road 3 times and it will probably be a journey we will take again in the next year or two with one or both of our soldiers. The tears are very real, the sleepless nights are not a dream; the prayers that are constantly on our lips and in our hearts bombard our Father without ceasing. And anyone reading this who has experienced it will be the first one to nod their head in agreement.
And so I thank all of you whose child or husband or wife or dad or mom or brother or sister...or friend..has been to the sand. I may not ever meet you, but you are my dearest friends because we understand each other. We are the ones who will pray and support the soldiers now deployed and offer understanding and comfort to their loved ones who wait at home. Oh, don't get me wrong - I know that many, many people are praying for our troops and every word spoken from their sincere and faithful hearts are so appreciated and welcomed. It's just that those of us who walk the same path need to keep one another company on the journey.
As I mentioned last week, Ron and I watched a series written and produced by Ken Burns called "The War." It was about WWII. The hundreds of thousands of men and women who left home and never returned. Their courage, their friendships, the lives they lived moment by moment in the trenches or in the forests or on beaches far away as bombs and mortar rained down on them. It was a series that was VERY difficult to watch because it was so gruesome and sad at times. That's what war is, right? Still, if these men and women and the families who loved them could endure it - make the sacrifices they made - how can I turn it off when it gets too difficult to watch? Don't I at least owe them the time it takes for them to tell us their stories? Sometimes war is too much to think about, isn't it?
Well, it's all in how you look at it. War DOES change us... it can make our faith grow - not only in God, but in human nature and the goodness people are capable of sharing. I've seen that goodness, and experienced the faith. It made me stronger as a mom and wife and friend. It makes us better - lets us love people better.
Troops - whether coming, or going, or serving on our home soil - will never be forgotten for their efforts, for their courage and for their sacrifice. They may be one in a million who serve our nation and I know that figure is a low estimate - but they each truly are an army of one.
And I love them all.