Thankful Thursday: Our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines & Coast Guard

I don't know how to describe the gratitude this email left me feeling.  I received it from a friend.  She was my middle-child's preschool teacher when hubs left for Iraq.  Her husband is a Coast Guard Reservist and had been deployed before and was also getting ready for another deployment at the time.  She understood.  She would 'report in' when I picked him up from school: "We had a great day", "He was a little clingy today", "He wanted to talk to me about Dad today".  She knew little reassurances like that were what I needed.  We were blessed. Other teachers he had just didn't /get it/.  They didn't understand the reassurance I would have liked in trying times.

So here we are, almost two years later.  Her husband was given two days notice to leave for Haiti.  The preschool did a collection of things he needed to send to her husband and his unit in Haiti (which I actually wrote about last week: Thankful Thursday: A HOT LONG Shower).  This email was her response, her genuine appreciation for those that were so willing to support her husband, and in turn her.

I speak with my husband a couple times a day. He wanted me to let you all know that the conditions in Haiti are more deplorable than anything he has seen in his life. This is not my husband's first deployment. He has been to Kuwait twice and to Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit. He has also been an innter-city police officer for 18 years. He has seen his fair share of sad and heartbreaking conditions.

The military men and women are bathing out of buckets and sleeping in tents. The heat is almost unbearable. Yet they are there to guard the ports of Haiti as a duty to our country and to help so many people in desperate need. I miss my husband terribly but I know he is doing something he is so very passionate about.

So to our service-members who sacrifice SO MUCH; from a warm-shower, to running water, to kissing their spouse good-night and tucking their little ones into bed.  I offer this trifle, yet genuine

THANK YOU

from your friend, neighbor, cousin, daughter, spouse!

- Leanne from MilitaryAvenue.com