Welcome Home...

Our soldiers here at Wainwright have just arrived home from a 12 month deployment! The air is buzzing with excitment and celebration! Last night I went with a sweet friend to welcome her hunny home! I was their photographer. It was so amazing...to see her little girls eyes searching the crowd until they rested on their Daddy! To hear the screams and applause as the men walked off the bus. To see the tears of relief to have their husbands and fathers back in their arms...safe from harms way. It was so serene...to be apart of the emotion...to feel the amazing love and tenderness in the room. How extremly humbling it was to stand and watch the reunions...

How much we take for granted our freedom in this country! The men and women who die daily to secure our safety. We go about our lives, living in our small bubbles, never thinking twice of the child who stands beside their daddy's graveside, or the wife who wonders what will happen next! We are so consumed with our daily drama and forget to pray for the family who is spending yet another year apart...trying to learn how to deal with life as a single parent...all the while praying that her solider makes it back in one piece! I live in the midst of this life we call the army...and still I forget...but praise God for the sweet reminder! I just want to say thank you to the men and women who fight, not just with the physical strength needed to win a war, but with the emotional and spiritual strength it takes to keep it together for their loved ones, their families and friends. The strength needed to keep lines of communication open so that marraiges don't fall apart and kids get to live with both mommy and daddy! I know the struggle it is to be a family so far apart...how days seem to drag on and the moment seems like it will never arrive to be reunited! But thank you for holding on...you guys are truly amazing and I love you so much! I am honored to have true friends who I can depend on to keep my freedoms alive, and who I can depend on to encourage me on a day to day basis! I am just thankful tonight...and wanted to share! My prayer is that the rest of us will be faithful to keep praying for these heros...for their families...and the transition that they are always in the middle of! God is good...