Brief Background & My Mission

BACKGROUND

The journal portions of this blog actually started 25 years ago ... and have been kept sporadically on paper, but mostly in my heart.

After 9 years of trying, we were blessed with a son, Shawn. He was a constant source of joy -- an 'easy' child, who soaked in his surroundings, knowledge and life like a sponge. By the time he was 9, we were homeschooling him. The joys of being able to instruct him and watch those 'light bulbs come on' in his eyes are forever cherished.

During those years, he met a new friend, Shapiro, and they quickly became more like brothers. Shapiro is bi-racial, and his story is an amazing one, which I'll share along the way. Through a series of surreal events, he became our second son. He's our oldest, being 6 months older than Shawn.

Just at the start of their Sr. & Jr. years in high school, the horrific events of September 11, 2001 occured. Both boys decided to enlist in the Army National Guard, but deferred to my pleas to wait until after graduation. Shapiro and Shawn both began college and several years passed before they finally enlisted.

Shawn once said "September 11th was always in my mind. I could no longer live with myself saying 'how sad for those families' and just going on with my life. I had to do something to make a difference." He was the first of our sons to deploy to Iraq, serving with the 142d Field Artillery in Baghdad, and returned home shortly after the final end of the horrid dictatorial leader of the Iraqi nation.

Shapiro is now deployed and serving in Southern Iraq, doing his part to insure not only the freedom for that nation, but also that their terrorists are defeated before they can attack our nation.

MY HOPE FOR THIS BLOG

We were never a military family, so there was much to learn as a parent along the way. Our local Family Readiness Groups are the absolute best, and are essential not only for their wealth of knowledge, experience and information, but for their encouragement, listening ears and huge loving hearts.

But, there are so many small, everyday things that somehow one just must discover on their own. That's the main mission of this blog -- to bring to light some of the organizations, businesses and resources that make a deployment more bearable -- for parents, spouses, children, grandparents and friends of our troops so willing to serve and protect us and others across the globe. Please know that I have personally checked out each of the organizations and businesses listed on this blogsite, (except for the little Google ads), and all are legitimate entities, most of which work non-stop for the benefit of our troops and families of soldiers. There are many wonderful organizations who work diligently to make certain our soldiers know they're appreciated and supported. The ones I've chosen to list here are only the ones which we as a family have personally worked with, for, or have supported financially.