November 11th (11/11/11) - Lets all be thankful for the Veterans on this Veterans Day!
I'm thankful for the men and women who have served for our country in the past and I'm thankful for those currently serving. I'm thankful for the wives and children who are here at home while their loved one is risking the ultimate sacrifice for our country. I'm thankful for the families who will get that horrible news that their loved one didn't make it.
There is a family in the town I grew up in that comes to mind today. Nathan sacrificed his life for all of us to continue to live the lives we do each day. I will be forever thankful to him for that. And his family will never leave my thoughts. They have had to sacrifice as much as he did.
I know some girls I went to high school with whose husbands are currently overseas or who have served and are now home. They have kids close to Lyla's age. I just can't imagine what they have been through.
So again, I am thankful for the Veterans and everyone who hopefully someday will be a Veteran and not currently serving. And I hope that someday soon Veterans Day will be about remembering past wars instead of it bringing to mind that we are at war. I think we all tend to forget that sometimes. Its become the new "normal' for us. And that in itself terrifies me.
I was 7 years old when the Gulf War started. I can distinctly remember my mom picking me up that evening from church (either choir practice or youth group) and we were in the car driving home and the President came on the radio to announce we were going to war. I can remember being a little scared, not really knowing what that meant. It was a big deal.
I was 18 when 9-11 happen. I can remember every detail of that day. That was the September after I graduated high school. I hadn't started my classes at Penn Commerical yet. My friend Ashley who is two years younger than me hadn't started back to school yet because of renovations. I had spent the night at her house and we slept in that morning. We got up to her dad watching it all on tv. And everything changed after that.
Kids today don't know what life is like with your country not at war. That is such a sad thought. Gary's little cousin was born September 9th, he had two days of life before the war started. Its all he has ever known. Its just so strange when you think about it that way.
So I think this Veterans Day we need to all stop and just remember all the people who have worked so hard and given so much to try to let all of us live normal lives. And we need to go back to the times that I remember when I was a kid. All the Veterans on Veterans Day were old! I always remember getting the facts about when my grandfather was in the war so I could say I knew a Veteran when I went to school.
