Change

Today was rough. Today Mark and I had to say, "See you later" (because I refuse to say goodbye) to a good friend of ours. Travis is deploying to Iraq for 15 months and leaves tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm so proud of him and all the other people we interact with on a daily basis through church and work that are in the military and serve their country so well. He is a good man, a great father and husband, very professional and he will bring sunlight and clean teeth =) to the place he will live and work for the next year. But on the other hand it is heart wrenching to see a family separated this way. We have several friends and neighbors here and back in the states that we have personally seen go through deployment. When it is a close friend you feel the pain they are going through. We say that we are so proud of the soldiers that are serving in Iraq in the war against terror. The idea of going in and trying to make a positive difference sounds so good! I AM proud of them, they ARE trying to make a difference, I just wonder if the sacrifice we are asking of them is becoming futile. I wholeheartedly believed it would make a difference in the beginning of it. But now as it drags on and really rarely shows us that we are moving ahead or making a difference and I see families torn apart either through loss of lives, severe trauma, or inability to come back together after a long separation I start to wonder. Soon after I arrived here in Germany I was walking through the local military hospital for a routine dr appt I witnessed gurney after gurney lined up and down the hallway with wounded soldiers just returning from down range. That day, the war hit me right in the face. I do know that things are happening down there that are positive and good, far be it for the media to allow us to see and know about it. But my final thought as I see another good man, father, dad, neighbor, and friend leave the life that he has worked hard to create is "are we asking too much of them?" Yes, we are, 15 months is absolutely a ridiculous amount of time to be separated from your family AND simply said our men are being dropped into the middle of a brutal backyard schoolboy fight between two gangs that have been fighting since the beginning of anything recorded in history, who don't fight fair, and I'm afraid that the fight will never be over. This idea of deployment coming to knock on my front door is something I thought would never happen to me, after all he is the band for heaven's sake. But lately there is whispering about me and I might just find myself in Kristine's shoes in a year. I hope this doesn't happen.

This blog of mine was never meant to be set up to send out my political views, just a way to keep my family informed of our adventures and to have yet another creative outlet. But, my friends, this is part of the "adventure", part of the experience we are having. You take the good and soak in every minute of it and hope the heartbreaking times are fleeting, few and far between. Didn't a pretty smart woman, I think her name was Eve, say that in order to appreciate the good and happy we must know the bad and sad.

Travis and Kristine, you know we love and support you. Know that you are in our prayers and that we are here for you! Anything . . . .