Feeling Blessed

Mario is on his way to Germany this morning. After spending the night in the terminal and talking to a few of the other deploying airmen, Mario was feeling pretty blessed. He recognized a guy from his training in Wyoming and immediately went to talk to him. He said it was evident the guy had been crying. The guy had his deployment canceled and was looking forward to taking his wife on a special Valentine's Day date. Then Friday night, he got a call and said that they found him a new job and he needed to be on a flight Saturday morning. The poor guy knows he is going to Kabul but has no idea where and what job he will have.

Mario spoke to a single mom who was stationed in Japan. She got notice that she was deploying 5 days ago. She had to leave her dishwasher loaded with dirty dishes and a washing machine loaded with laundry to catch a flight to the mainland to drop off her kids at her mom's house before deploying.

Mario talked to another airman who spent weeks in Florida to train for her deployment job but then had it changed at the last minute. So all that training was for nothing.

With Obama's troop increase, some career fields are going to 6 months deployment and then home for 6-12 months before redeployment. Fortunately, Mario is not in one of those career fields, but with the frequent changes in the military, we never know. Four out of the six officers in his office are deploying this year.

There were at least 100 airman that were with Mario waiting to board the plane for a deployment. He only spoke to a few. I am sure there are many more stories like the ones above. It made him realize that we are really blessed. We have life very easy. It also makes me realize how much we need to appreciate the sacrifices these military men and women are making for us. I am so thankful for these sacrifices and so thankful to live in a free country. Sometimes I take that for granted and then I remember what Mario's grandparents went through in Cuba and I realize how lucky we truly are.

On a separate note, Zach has never fasted in his short life. But last night he told me he wanted to fast for daddy. I thought he would forget, but as he was getting out of the shower this morning, he reminded me that he was fasting. So it gave me the opportunity to teach him how to fast. When I asked Nathan to go out of my room for a couple minutes so Zach and I could pray to start his fast, Nathan said he wanted to fast also. But then when he found out that fasting means not eating, he changed his mind...maybe next month.