Soldier Boy

This is a picture of my lil bro's childhood best friend (he's the youngish looking one.) Charlie is serving our country as a Marine in Afganistan. I honestly don't know all the details of his deployment, but I just got an email from his mom saying he has extended his deployment for six more months. I don't get too many updates about him, but for some reason I feel the need to pray for him so I'd like to ask you to please pray for Charlie and everyone he comes into contact with, friend or foe.

The day after Halloween, DM's office hosted a "candy buy back", which basically means they paid kids in our community a dollar for every pound of candy they brought to the office. They collected 146 pounds of candy, which was then boxed up and sent overseas to our troops. We participated (mostly because it's a wonderful cause but partially because it would look really badly if DM's own family didn't come. And because I need to eat another piece of candy these days...)

(Can you find BigM in this picture writing a letter to the troops? Hers said, "MOM DAD BIGM LM" and she drew a few hearts. I am 100% positive she thought she was writing me a letter.)

BigM first found out about "soldiers" when we went trick or treating with our neighbors (see the boy she's sitting next to in the hula skirt picture- you'll have to scroll down to the Halloween post.) We really explained what they do when we gave away all our candy.

I hope we'll get to introduce the mice to Charlie when he's home this December on a two week leave- so BigM can meet a real live soldier and so we can thank Charlie for his service to our country. No matter how you feel about war- my little brother's friend is doing his job and putting himself in harm's way daily and for that I'm very thankful. I hope you'll take a moment to say a prayer for Charlie and all our soldiers, too. We owe them a lot.

(I kind of feel like standing up and singing that Lee Greenwood song now. And I bet it'll be stuck in your head for a few hours now. You're welcome.)