Pride.........

Since it is Veterans Day, I did some thinking today about what my veteran and all those serving, past and present have given me.  It is sometimes easy for me to get down about being alone while Major is deployed.  Like many military spouses, It is easy to feel like I am doing everything on my own….but if I really take a look at things, there is SO much more to be thankful for. 

So here is how I see it....this is my simple break down…. We live in a house, we can work any job we want to, we can say almost anything we want through opinion.  we are free to worship however we wish.  We can go to the grocery store and buy a selection of produce and foods that we choose.  We can decide to disagree with our country’s leaders, we can vote or not vote for whom we want.  We can walk down the street without the fear of a mine or IED blowing off the leg of our child.  We can go downtown and walk around without fear of a group driving through lighting off assault rifles.  We can raise our children without fear of the government coming into our home and taking our son from us because he needs to be trained.  We don’t have to fear that our daughter will be stolen from us and sold.

Without our men and women in uniform, these things are not necessarily protected.

Of course everyone has their own political views.  Some people don’t agree with where we are in the world and details about the war.  I could care less if you don’t agree with the wars.  That is what our uniformed service men and women protect.  Your ability to not agree with it.

Did you know that less than 1% of our nations population serve our country.  So, less that 1% for the remaining 99%.

I can recall the first time my husband was deployed and my two year old daughter and I were at the grocery store.  She was wearing a tshirt that said her daddy was in Iraq.  A couple approached us and told us that Major was a baby killer for being part of the war.  Guess what.  I didn’t take offense to the comments….honestly I didn’t.  (What I took offense to was that my daughter heard.)  Because what I had was pride.  Pride because…..my husband serves this great country so you can tell a child in a supermarket that her daddy is a baby killer. 

In other places in the world that person could have been killed on the spot for having an opinion.  Or my child could have been taken and sold because she was wearing a tshirt that said something the govt didn’t like. 

So, support veterans, support their families, support the men and women who are and have served because it means that you can sleep at night in a house, can have heat in your home because we have an infrastructure that we protect, you can wake up thirsty in the night and go get a glass of water that isn’t brown, you can send your daughter to school because she is worth it. 

Happy Veterans Day to all those serving and who have served.  Thank you for what I have in life.