HAPPY,  NEW YEAR

As a parent of a deployed soldier, holidays are a mixed bag of fruit. On one hand, I enjoyed the first Christmas of my youngest grandchild, 3 months old. I enjoyed having all my grandkids underfoot on Christmas Eve! I enjoyed spending time with both sides of our family, all here local and easy to get back and forth to see. I enjoyed waking up to enough snow to make it seem like Christmas...in the words of my almost 5 year old grandson, "NOW it's Christmas!" 

We were SOOO blessed beyond measure to Skype with my son at family gatherings while gift exchanges were taking place....it was so neat to pass his wife's phone around so everyone could visit a little while with him. Family photos were done with him showing up on the phone. :) 

But at the same time...we missed him dearly. WE were having fun. But what was HE doing?? Did it even seem like Christmas to him where he is?? Could he enjoy any aspect of it?? I hope so...we did everything in our tool box of resourcefulness to make him have a little Christmas in his boxes. Uncle Si T-shirt, pine scented do dads, wrapped food items in Christmas paper, the list goes on...was it enough?? Lord, did we fill in the gap?
There was comfort in knowing that the same Jesus we were celebrating in our location is the very same Jesus our son was personally celebrating in his location...no matter where we are or how far the distance may be, we can feel connected by and through the Savior. :)

New Year's Day. The ball dropped here...what happened over there? What did he get to visualize as the beginning of a new year around the world? Skype again allowed him to share it with his wife and family....thank You Lord!

2014. We are praying for a HAPPY YEAR alright. One that will see our soldier HOME. Let the real countdown begin....

A Different Kind of Christmas

This year during December's Christmas events and gatherings our soldier may be absent from our midst, but never from our hearts!

This is simply a different kind of Christmas. Just going out to get a freshly cut Christmas tree is quite the task for our daughter-in-law and her three young children! 

We have mailed our last Christmas box to those serving in Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas. We pray they all arrive to their recipients...including our son. These boxes of love may simply contain items most of us can go buy within a few minutes' drive...but they contain much more than that to those who receive them. They contain a feeling of "home." Of love. Of support. Of generous and thoughtful giving and humble receipt. They may contain items they need and cannot get readily. When a box is opened, love pours out!

This Christmas season I have not given any thought to what I would like to receive from my loved ones in a box. My thoughts have been geared up on what I can put IN a box....and how many boxes can we get over there to lift up and encourage those far from home?

I think of it this way. All military families of deployed troops will miss their soldier in a variety of ways this holiday season....family groups might miss one or two from their midst as a general rule. BUT...every soldier is most likely missing many people this Christmas. Family members, friends, co-workers, church family, social groups, you name it...it includes a lot of people! So I tell people, "Don't pray for me! Pray for my son...he's the one missing so many.  I will miss him for sure! And yes there will be an empty place and we will all miss his smoked meat! Yes, Christmas morning for his wife and kids will be different....but they will wake up together. He will wake up to an empty cube of a room that he has called "home" since he deployed. But he won't be alone! Jesus is there...

Jesus is the reason for the season...and joy in the heart can be found, no matter the external circumstances! Our hero is celebrating the same Jesus 11,000 miles away...and that right there means we are together this Christmas. In thought, in action, in heart. All things that count....and maybe, just maybe, we can reach out and touch that computer screen and see his face on Christmas Day. That would be the greatest gift for all of us this year! :)

The following graphic and poem was posted on my son's facebook page to his wife...I found it fitting to place here with this post. May all of our troops serving overseas this Christmas find joy of the heart. It's a different kind of Christmas and although you may be physically far from home, you are ever near to those you love and those who love you...

LCain