We have a winner for the blog candy I offered during the Operation Write Home Bunny Blog Hop! Random.org chose Erika’s comment:
“Cute! And as a military wife, let me say thank you for donating your creations to OWH!”
Erika put a link to a blog in the information section of the comment form, so I clicked on that to see if I’d visited her blog during the blog hop. No, I hadn’t – she has a personal blog rather than a papercrafting one. But what I read got me feeling verklempt. I emailed her, and she responded, giving me permission to share what she’d written on her blog. Erika’s husband has been reassigned to a post overseas, so the two of them and their young daughter will have to move away from the States for about 4 years. While they are overseas, Erika expects her husband to be deployed 3 or 4 times. Erika shared her mixed emotions about moving, being away from her parents, her siblings and their families, and the likelihood of needing to find new homes for their pets.
I’ve always lived in Virginia. Even though I grew up very close to an Army base and knew lots of Army kids while I was in school, I can’t fully imagine what it’s like to be uprooted every few years. Being in a foreign country sounds like an exciting opportunity at first, but the idea of being a single mom for a while with no available support from extended family, while in a foreign country, is (in my opinion) a little scary.
And that’s why I am so glad and willing to make cards for Operation Write Home – to show support for families like Erika’s. To thank them for the sacrifices they make in their personal lives, being separated from spouses, children, extended family and friends. To thank the ones being deployed for defending our country and trying to make things better in lands far away, and to thank the ones staying at home for their efforts to keep things as “normal” as possible.
And thank you to Operation Write Home for giving me that opportunity.
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