Monday, May 6, 2013

gasp

I'm post two days in a row.  Whatevs.

Autumn heard from Nick in the wee morning hours and he said he was ok.

I have so much going through my head.

I am so relieved that he is confirmed safe.

I am so very heartbroken for the families that missing one person.

This deployment has hit so very close to my heart.

I don't quite know how to express how I feel quite yet.

Hug your loved ones extra tight.

You don't know how blessed you are to have them close to you.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Radio Silence

There has been silence from this computer for some time.  I won't apologize for it.  Life is busy.

Right now though I need to let something out.

My sil came over yesterday to my 2nd house (aka my best friends house ((I'm babysitting while she is away on business))).  As soon as she came in the door I could tell something was wrong.  Her mom had literally just called her to say that there had been a Stryker that hit an IED  in the Kandahar Provence of Afghanistan.    This is where my brother, her husband, is currently deployed to and what is job is.  He drives a Stryker.  What was worse was there was a blackout of all communication with family so Autumn hasn't heard anything.  We had talked to my mom yesterday and didn't say anything about what was going on over there, but I talked to Autumn and told her we needed to let her know that all was not well.  And knowing that Autumn would have a break down if she tried to tell my mom something might be wrong, I was the one that had to call.

At this point it has been over 24 hours so we would have heard if my brother was one of the casualties.  There is the continuing communication blackout for all the soldiers so we will continue to be out of the loop.
But no news is good news.

As my mom said today, "I am relieved that we didn't get any visitors today with bad news, but but entire body hurts for those who have just gotten the visit that we are trying to avoid."

And that is exactly it.  We have made it through the waiting period, wondering if my brother was in that Stryker, but I don't want to rejoice too much because someone else's brother, son, husband, father was in there and has gotten a horrible visit from Army officials that will forever change their lives.

Please keep them in your thoughts, and if you pray, your prayers.

This is one of the only pictures we have gotten of my brother... he is the one in the middle and the Stryker is behind him.