Remember those willing to give all
The holidays are here, our family is gathered together and the smell of cooking fills our home. All seems just right, but I know what lies just ahead, just beyond the holidays, a day every mother fears and dreads — the day her son deploys.
So you see, every laugh we share right now seems even more special than the years before. The greatest gift I can ask for this Christmas is the gift of time — I want more of it. I want more family dinners and more time sitting on the back porch all talking together before I have to watch him pack his bags, put on his uniform and go.
I feel as if people have forgotten there is still a war going on. We are still sending our loved ones to fight for this country that we are blessed enough to call home. I just want to ask that as you gather with your family this holiday season remember those who are not here with their families, the ones who are deployed.
I encourage everyone who reads this to send a holiday card or several to a deployed soldier. They are away from the ones they love during the holidays, and it is hard, so very hard. My boys have told me they live for mail call — sometimes that is what keeps them going. This is not the first son we have sent to war, but let me tell you it never gets easy. So anything you can do to let them know the American people have not forgotten them, that we know the war is still raging on, and that we here at home keep our porch lights on and our flags hung — and prayers are still being lifted until every soldier deployed is home.
Holly Wagner
Gibsonton
