One Wish

I'd like to send out a little prayer to my sister-in-law, Melissa. She is a Convoy Nurse in the Air Force, and she has been training all this year for deployment in Afghanistan. By the time she returns home in December, she will have been away from her family - my brother, Shelby, son Blake (14) and daughter Daisy (just turned 2), for a year.

Here is a photo of Melissa, Daisy and Arli from last summer:

This weighs heavily on me as a Mama. I have been totally stressing out about what is going to happen in July when I'm away from Arli for work for 5 days. I can't imagine the agony of being away from my baby girl for a year, especially when she is so small and doesn't know what's happening.

I know that Melissa is in the service voluntarily and she's doing what she believes in, but it really makes me sick that we are still in Afghanistan anyway. WHY WHY WHY??? I hate politics and I hate war. Maybe I'm naive and idealistic. Maybe I'm just plain ignorant.

Melissa is a tough woman, a great mother, and I admire and respect her sacrifice nonetheless. I'm going to do what I can to help my brother out. I'm going to write to her while she's gone. I'm going to pray that she comes home safely, and undamaged, and that some day her sweet kids will understand why she had to be away.

I'm going to pray that there will be a world someday without crooked politics and war, and that parents don't have to make these kind of hard decisions just to make a living. I don't know if I'll ever live to see that day, but I don't think it hurts one bit to wish for it.