Ya'll know our family is dealing with a deployment - our son-in-love...Missy's husband. As you can imagine - it is strongly on our minds right now and something we talk about often these days.

This morning at breakfast - we were recalling how it feels to have a family member leaving. Missy's dad and I also grew up in military families and have many memories of seeing our dads getting ready to leave. The whole family always took part Missy grew up just like me - helping dad get ready to go on a mission. I have been thinking about sending Dennis off to Vietnam and later, Korea. As usual, the whole family joins in the preparations and even though we have very heavy hearts - we want to do everything we can to stay strong and help our military loved one feel hopeful and strong. Getting ready to leave is an intensely emotional time - but not all the feelings are sad. We put our energy into staying positive.

Dennis had me pull out these pictures that he took with him to Korea - as he was thinking of this in the past days. His fondest recollection is the strength he gained from his supportive family - even though he had to leave us. So, I thought I would share these

Here we are while he is gone - this was 1993 so everyone is very young but here we are - his family back home!! That is Misha's daddy on the right! Dennis was gone for a year at this time.


Another recollection Dennis had was his family helping him pack and get things ready. This is not a good copy - but is a picture he took with him and loved!! Since it shows our Missy - I wanted to share this also. As her way of helping, she went out in the front yard to "wash dishes" because she wanted her daddy's messkit nice and clean to put in the mobility bag She was so small!!


Well yes, we are pretty emotional here - but I really wanted to share a bit of the sense of pride and emotion involved in being a military family and doing what we can to fill this role.

Again - thank you for all of your encouragement and especially prayers