Reflections

As I have been preparing for another year of running deployment groups for children who's parents are deployed (obvious) and I am faced with the another holiday season where children are without one of their parents, whether they be in Iraq or on a mission elsewhere, I have started to reflect on how we shape our own lives with the choices we make. Just this morning, as Nathan and I were walking in Balboa park with our friend Cheryl and Nathanial, I started to think about those kids again who will be faced with the holiday season without one parent. The thought that Nathan would spend any length of time without one of us is something I couldn't even bear to think about. I was talking with one of the mom's at my school whose husband recently left for an entire year. That is one whole year of his three children's life that he will only know through emails, pictures, videos and phone calls. I realize what an important job our military has, and I am in no way disrepecting what they do, but it makes me sad to think that anyone would have to miss even one day of watching their child grow up.