Heavy Heart

Our Marine left for Iraq today. Hubs flew to NC to see him off. I was just sick that I could not be there too, but I needed to be home to get blonde rascal situated in his new school.

Hubs sent a few pics that he took this morning with his phone...

Our Marine is the handsome smiling one on the far right! Wow, look at those young faces...those faces will be protecting us a world away while we sleep peacefully at night.



Here he is (in the middle) before they all got on buses that would take them to Cherry Point, NC where they would board a plane headed to Germany (we think) and then Iraq.

Sigh.

I have fought the lump in my throat and tears welling in my eyes all day.

I talked to him last night to tell him bye. I told myself that I would be strong and not cry....but I turned into a blubbering, sniffling, snotty mess at the end of the call.

You may have jumped 3 feet when you opened my blog and some righteous rock & roll came blasting out at you! Sorry. (If it is too loud you are too old just turn your volume down for crying out loud) The fact is am a fan of My Hero by the Foo Fighters. Last night when I got into bed, I reflected on the fact that I had evidently had bought the cheapest alarm clock available, because it is only a radio alarm...no buzzer option. This was never an issue... until we moved exactly 15 miles from nowhere and there is no radio reception. Whenever I have had to set my alarm this summer, I have set it to "static" as that is my only option. Back to last night, I turned on the alarm to set it to some static...when loud and clear came "Hero" through the speaker.

When our hero joined the Marines a year & a half ago, I knew this day would eventually come.

There have been thousands one or two times through the years that I have wanted to strangle him with my bare hands....that is my prerogative as a mom. But I don't want anyone or anything else to harm him.

I am vacillating emotionally between scared and proud. Thankfully, I have my faith in God and confidence in the training he has received to soothe my fears.

And pride? Please, my buttons are bursting with pride. Nothing is as noble as serving your country in my opinion.

We are now looking forward to getting emails, pictures and phone calls from him. And sending him packages chocked full of any and all goodies that he wants. And counting down the months until his feet are back on U.S. soil.