God Bless 'Murica!

Man, sometimes do you ever just laugh to yourself? I spend most of my day laughing at the stupid stuff that comes into my memory. I was walking with Cara (and maybe Cory) Lawson back from and OSU football game and we saw a sign hanging up outside a apartment on Lane Ave. and it just made me laugh and laugh. So, of course I am going to use it as a blog post title, right!

Have you ever thought through the path to how you got to a certain point? This morning I was thinking about how I met me friend, Mike. Well, I met Mike through Adopt a US Soldier, which I found one day while I was looking on the internet. I was looking on the internet that day because as I was reading “Angel from Hell” by Ryan Conklin.  He is the incredibly hunky prankster who was a cast member on MTV’s real world. Ryan is really the only reason I watched the Real World that season, because as I mentioned earlier, he is incredibly hunky.  I could go keep going about why I watched the first episode of the Real World Brooklyn, (which is because of an episode of “The Soup” that I watched with John Shaw, but I think at this point, it would just be better to stop J )

So back to the glue that holds this all together, Ryan. Ryan is also Iraq War Vet. Let’s call a spade a spade here and admit that in my eyes that only adds to his hotness. So, of course I would read the book he wrote about his first tour in Iraq. I really enjoyed his book. It’s the first Iraq memoir I have ever read, so I don’t really have much to compare it too. I can say this, he’s a guy who wrote about his day to day life for the first year he was in Iraq. He’s not polished and he’s not fancy, but I really enjoyed his book.  In his book, he talks about how one of the greatest gifts he got in Iraq was a guitar he received from a stranger. This got me to thinking, I could be stranger who sends people stuff. So, I started to look on the internet on how to go about that. I ran across many different sites that explained how you could write letters to soldiers, how you could send care packages to soldiers, even sites that are specifically for dating soldiers. But the site that got my attention the most was www.adoptaussoldier.org. Basically, you “adopt” a soldier for their entire deployment. They could be deployed anywhere, but most soldiers are in Iraq and Afghanistan. As I read all of the posted information I knew I wanted to be apart of this. So, I signed up. I waited patiently as I waited for my soldier’s information. I wondered a lot about who my soldier would be. Would I get a male or a female? Would they be married? I worried a little about being assigned a married man. Not that anything in appropriate would happen, but I would rather not be sending a married man that I don’t know care packages. If I was married and this was something my husband and I were doing together, I would feel differently, but whatever. I also didn’t want to “request” an unmarried man, because it is plastered all over the website that this isn’t a dating service. (Go to those other website for that J ) After a few days, I received an email about my soldier, Mike. It always wigs me out a bit to say, “My Soldier” but whatever, that is what people say.



Have you met Mike?



I wrote Mike an e-mail. Then I printed off the e-mail and put it in the mail along with some other little tid bits of info. Some soldiers will give a lot of information when they sign up, and some don’t. Thankfully, I had some information on Mike and could put things I thought he might be interested in. Thankfully, Mike is a sports fan, so that gave me plenty of things to talk about! One thing about Adopt a Soldier is you can’t expect letters in return. It’s nice, but they are a little busy and might not have time to get back with you. Christmas day I was so excited because I received my first e-mail from Mike! What a Christmas present!

Mike and I have exchanged e-mails back and forth for awhile now. I really enjoy reading his e-mails and learning more about what is happening overseas. I have never really had a “pen pal” per say, so this is defiantly something that I am all about right now. Mike in the Army Reserves and back in  Minnesota he is a police officer; He has a beautiful little baby named Shane. This is his second tour overseas and he is currently stationed in Afghanistan. I thank him greatly for his service both stateside and overseas.



Yeah, not gonna lie, I think this is cool!



I asked Alan Evans the other day (Amber Gilbert Evan’s hubby) if he got lots of letters from strangers back home. I asked if they were cool, or just kinda annoying? I wanted to know if me writing soldiers was really worth it, ya know… Alan actually told me something that I didn’t expect to hear. He said the letters really boosted overall moral and that they were really important. They were a constant reminder that people are appreciative of them. He talked about how family and friends are always going to say thank you and tell you how proud of you they are, but hearing it from strangers really makes a difference. I guess that just isn’t something I ever really thought about.

A lot of the websites I came across had the same basic message. These troops need our support. If you are for our actions overseas or against them, it doesn’t matter, there are still troops that need our support either way. I also think of troops that are deployed that don’t really have a lot of family or friends back home supporting them. Could you imagine being over seas for a year and not hearing from anyone? That just breaks me heart.

The more and more I looked into this, the more and more I learned about ways to support our troops. I even found an organization that helps soldiers preparing to deploy find temporary homes for their pets while they are gone. If you don’t really want to “adopt a Soldier” for the long haul, you just want to write a letter to “any soldier” from time to time, do some exploring and decided which organization fits you best and how you can help. There are so many organizations the help our awesome troops when they return home as well! (Expect a blog sometime this year about the Wounded Warriors Project and Warrior’s Wish Foundation, which both have taken my heart by storm)

Basically, there are things we could all be doing to show support to our troops. If you have friends who are serving, send them an email or even better, write them a letter today just to say hey. I am forming a really awesome friendship with a police officer from Minnesota, (If I am honest, I am getting more out of this than he is, but hey, that happens) which I never would have formed if it wasn’t for a trail of not so random things that connected us. Do something today!  Do some research and sign up too help! If you want more information on what groups I have researched, let me know, I will gladly share what I have learned.

To ALL of our troops, no matter where they are stationed, I thank you for service! I pray that you are very dangerous and that you do your jobs well. Know that people are praying for you and for your loved ones! To my friends who are currently serving (and those of you who are trying to figure out where the arny will take you next) I wish you well!  I also want to wish Dusty Clement the best as he is preparing to leave for the Army in March! Thank you all for all you do!