Holiday Gifts for Soldiers

Last year for Christmas, instead of giving neighbor gifts we decided to make a donation to our local Veteran's hospital in the name of our neighbors. We gave each neighbor a copy of a poem and let them know we made a donation in their name. We got such a great response from everyone and it was a great experience for the boys.

Unfortunately, there will be some soldiers who get nothing this holiday season. If it's within your means I would like to suggest sending a care package to a soldier.  There are many websites out there that you can check. A couple of them are;
Soldier's Angels lists many different ways to help.
American Red Cross Holiday Mail for Heroes - you can download a free holiday card to send to a soldier.

If you're willing to send the package on your own I would recommend this site Any Soldier
Over the summer we did a drive to collect items to send to Iraq and Afghanistan and used this site to find out what was needed and where to send. This site will list a name to send it to and you can read emails from the soldiers to find out exactly what is needed.

Happy Holidays!

Read more...

Our Soldiers

I was watching Little People, Big World last night.  The dad from the show was in Iraq to meet with a family that had 3 kids in their family that have dwarfism.  I have to say it made me an emotional wreck.  Not only was the story about the kids heartbreaking and at the same time inspirational but seeing the conditions that our soldiers are living and working in was absolutely eye opening.

Living so close to a military base we have many friends and neighbors who are in the military and have deployed several times to Iraq.  Last year we lost our neighbor when the vehicle he was in was hit by a roadside bomb.  Before his accident, I was so naive about the conditions over there.  Ryan's death brought everything so close to home and I don't think any of our lives will be the same. 

As you read this, please take a minute to think of or pray for our soldiers.  I only wish that every one of them would come home safely. 

And if you get a minute try to catch the episode of Little People, Big World - it really was moving

Read more...