Posted on 03/29/2008 11:24:00 PM PDT by patriciaruth
Welcome to the 2008 thread of the Merry Band of Patriots!
Our grassroots group of troop supporters started in the summer of 2001 by sending VHS movies and Snickers candy bars to the 101st Airborne and later the 10th Mountain at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. We are not an organized charity as no one of us has the time or energy to do all that paperwork, and any contributions made are not tax deductible.
Our specialty in the past has been movies, books, snacks, personal care items, holiday decorations and some appliances like DVD players, microwaves, and Playstations; and we have sent many hundreds of movies to various bases. Normally we adopt a whole unit and send care packages to a contact in that unit who distributes the goodies to all in the unit. When our adopted units rotate back stateside, they leave the items which are not consumable for the use of their follow-on unit. Thus we have helped build up entertainment libraries throughout the war zones.
REVIEW OF 2006
In 2006 we entered our 6th year of sending care packages to our troops in war zones We adopted the follow-on PSYOP company at Bagram air base in Afghanistan and a follow-on Stryker Brigade company at Mosul in Iraq. We also adopted a new company of 141st Signal battalion in the 1st Armored Division that started at Tal Afar and was soon moved to Ramadi as a tip of the spear there in 2006, just after another adopted unit (Old Sarge’s unit) at Ramadi left. Here are a couple emails from Chris that say it all for what they went through there.
“The bad news is that my team has been activated and now has a mission in downtown Ramadi, the most dangerous place in Iraq.” –June 15, 2006
“…can you say, BOMB MAGNET?!!” -- June 16, 2006
[It didn't help that a reporter with a major news service helped the terrorists spot their RPG trajectories by publishing that one had fallen 20 feet short, resulting the next day in an RPG killing one of our contact's fellow soldiers.]
“Last week another soldier and I were at our communication trucks when an RPG hit a humvee right outside our compound wall about 10 feet away. It rocked the trucks. We both opened the doors to our trucks to run inside when a 2nd RPG flew over the wall, through our camouflage net, bounced off the top of our trucks and hit the ground exploding right in front of us. I was closest, about 2 feet away. The blast threw us back into the trucks. The other guy only had his glasses knocked off. He got right back up and ran inside. I don't remember the exact details but I remember the blast throwing me back inside the truck and into the signal equipment. I think I was stunned and dazed because I sat there for a few minutes before I regained situational awareness and got the hell out of there. I suffered a concussions and some hearing loss.” –August 10, 2006
A lot of prayers were said for our guys at Ramadi, which is now a relatively peaceful city under Anbar Awakening, and our contacts are safely home.
In 2006 we were also glued to a couple companies of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Richardson in Alaska. (Most of the Brigade bases at Ft Wainwright.) Our adopted company in an SBCT the year before had been at Fallujah 2004 and then met evil face to face and endured some horrific times at Mosul (2004-2005). They witnessed atrocities to the civilian population by the terrorists and they experienced IED attacks and the mess hall bombing at FOB Marez that left some of our company very severely injured with one KIA.
Their follow-on unit and a sister company that we also adopted were faced with pacifying the towns along the Syrian border. In 2006 they moved out from Mosul into Ft Talafar, FOB Heider, COP Rawah, and other locations and brought a return to sanity for the locals from the murderous reign of radical and vicious terrorists enforcing their idea of Sharia law.
Alpha company of 4-23 infantry regiment of SBCT was out in the sand in tents at COP Rawah in the late winter and into the blistering summer heat with few amenities, so we concentrated on sending them packages.
In May of 2006, because I believed our adopted 172nd Stryker units and our 1AD unit at Tal Afar were going to be in an upcoming major offensive, I urged our troop supporters to send a great many care packages for the Fourth of July.
The Merry Band of Patriots responded by sending over a hundred care packages to our adopted units for the Fourth of July. More detail will be in one of the first posts of this new thread.
As feared, just as their tour ended and they were getting on planes to go back to Alaska, our two adopted 172nd SBCT companies had their tours extended and were turned around and sent to Baghdad in 120 degree heat. They pretty much arrived with just the clothes on their backs, having given away to their follow-on unit or mailed home most of their “comfort” and recreational items. They had to beg back their Stryker vehicles and unpack and reassemble and resight their weapons. ‘Stryker at the special location’ (FOB Heider) went, too; and all were reunited again at FOB Stryker at Baghdad. Some 200 plus of them returned from Alaska.
We did an emergency mailing of packages to help reequip them with odds and ends, like surge protectors, flexible cold packs, pillows, sheets, soccer ball inflators, drink mix, DVD movies and boxed TV series. kattracks, bjcintennessee, daybreakcoming, DAVEY CROCKET, JaneAustin, Just A Nobody, SwatTeam, JoyjoyfromNJ, Enterprise, MJY1288, norton, JustAmy, Abigail Adams, DrDeb, Ros42, my optometrist, SENClander, patriciaruth all sent packages.
In return a few of us got T-shirts from the Apache Renegades (Juan’s Stryker unit), with their mascot [skull with Indian war bonnet] over a map of Iraq with this inscription:
OIF
Aug 05 – Dec 06
Mosul Rawah Baghdad
“STRIKE FEAR”
We adopted a new unit in the Fall of 2006, an NPTT unit (National Police Transition Team) at Baghdad, on the recommended of Juan in the 172nd SBCT, because his brother Andy was a member of the unit. (Another brother was serving in Afghanistan. What a family!)
We also sent 19 packages to Kirkuk for Operation Crayon summer 2006 with school supplies for the local kids.
We communicated with and sent some packages to a few wounded warriors at a Fisher House for transitional treatment of those just discharged from Walter Reed.
We sent some packages to Irbil where some MI soldiers were liaisoning with servicemen from Republic of Korea, and some to a military intelligence unit at Kirkuk.
I sent a few packages to a Marine from my town who was near Baghdad.
2006 had its victories.
Zarqawi was killed at Mosul in June and Saddam was executed in Baghdad in December. But the bombing of the Golden Mosque at Samarra by al Qaida early in 2006 sparked escalating sectarian violence that almost derailed everything we had accomplished. Anbar Awakening (where the Iraqis in Anbar Province decided the al Qaida types were evil and decided to band with the Americans to get rid of them) and the Surge in 2007 put Iraq back on the freedom track and our soldiers closer to seeing a victory for their heroic and costly efforts in Iraq.
2006 had its sorrows.
2006 was a difficult year for me due to personal and family health problems and the beginning of kattrack's final illness, and thus I never posted a new 2007 thread with a summary of 2006. The advantage of the delay is that I was able to include much more detail about what was going on with our adopted units in 2006.
kattracks was our Fairy Godmother Dept for our soldiers in harm's way. In the first 9 months of 2006 she sent at least 92 care packages, many of them large. 7 went to Camp Ramadi and included an large inflatable wading pool, 9 went to Stryker at Mosul. 23 went to Tal Afar for general distribution to all the units there. 11 went to A company of Stryker at COP Rawah and then 11 more went to them after they were redeployed to Baghdad; 2 went to C company of Stryker at Ft Talafar and 11 more after they redeployed to Baghdad. 9 went to Kirkuk for Operation Crayon, and 9 went to Bagram air field, Afghanistan.
kattracks was given the precious gift of the Rapture in May, 2007, and we were left to carry on without her.
A few other special projects in 2006 that caught my eye as I was counting the packages from kattracks:
18 boxes of school supplies were sent in 2006 to Operation Crayon in Kirkuk by Coop, kattracks, Jane Austen, patriciaruth, my mother, Just A Nobody, Enterprise, DrDeb)
Two framed quit claim deeds to Zarqawi’s safe house were donated by doug from upland (together with copy of the ad on eBay) and sent to MI at Kirkuk and to 1AD at Ramadi.
Christmas, 2006, packages went to
Bagram (from Nina0113, Enterprise, daybreakcoming, airborne)
Baghdad:
10th Mountain: (from patriciaruth)
NPTT (from SENClander, daybreakcoming, with 11 Petzl headlamps sent directly)
a local Marine near Baghdad (patriciaruth)
4th ID north of Baghdad. (from patriciaruth requested by Abigail Adams)
Mosul: Stryker that was redeployed to Baghdad (from jtill, a Santa suit from patriciaruth, LittleBlogSpot, Freedom is eternally right, SwatTeam)
Ramadi: (from jtill, fanfan, SwatTeam, daybreakcoming and her sister, Merlinator, Abigail Adams, Enterprise, Just A Nobody)
Wounded:
Walter Reed (from Enterprise)
Mologne House for recovering wounded (from patriciaruth)
daybreakcoming sent pre-lit Christmas trees to Ramadi and Mosul, and her tree to Stryker at Mosul ended up at FOB Stryker in Baghdad as they were redeployed there just before Christmas. SENClander sent a pre-lit Christmas tree to NPTT at Baghdad.
Many care packages went out throughout 2006 which are not listed, like all those nina0133 sent to Bagram; but I have decided to cut the effort to list everything now so I can manage to get a new thread posted.
REVIEW OF 2007
In 2007 we sent out over 71 care packages to Afghanistan, over 105 to Stryker Brigade Combat Team units in the Surge to pacify Baghdad and environs, over 83 to NPTT units at Baghdad, and 4 to Balad for an estimate of over 263 packages sent to our adopted units in the war zones.
. The Surge meant our guys were on walk about more than they were at home base -- looking for and finding AI (al Qaida in Iraq) as well as enough caches of weapons to carpet California.
Afghanistan heated up and we ended the year 2007 sending a few care packages to a group holed up on high mountain ledge near the Pakistan border and scoring 400 plus fire fights with Taliban and al Qaida trying to infiltrate back into Afghanistan.
Last year 2007 we grieved at the loss of troop supporters kattracks, kayak, 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub, GretchenM (formerly GretchenEE), and the husbands of jtill and SENClander. We also continued to miss COB1 (AKA Texas Cowboy). God holds them all now in the palm of His infinite hand.
CREDITS:
AFGHANISTAN 2007:
BAGRAM Air Field near Kabul:
SENClander's sister sent 3 care packages in January to 315th PSYOP unit just before they left, and we [nina0133, Ros42, Abigail Adams, Just Amy, Jim Robinson, jtill, Paperdoll, PigRigger, manna, patriciaruth] sent 61 care packages (5 were large) to A Co, 13th PSYOP who took over and who have now departed early this year. These packages included 55 bags of beef jerky given to a Special Forces unit there from airborne, norton, Kitty Mittens and my mother. SW6906 sent most episodes of 3 TV series.
KANDAHAR: fanfan sent packages to Canadian troops
BATTLE Company on Pakistan-Afghan border:
Early in December 2007 we sent them 7 care packages for Christmas:
5 boxes of Hickory Farms cheeses (with 37.5 oz of cheese in each) from Enterprise and patriciaruth, a box with 17 packs with 1/2 lb of beef jerky from 4Godsoloved...Hegave, and a box with 14 Hickory Farms 14 oz beef sausages from by cshnorthcarolina.
Email to maine-iac7 from her grandson: “We ate all of that cheese and meat, it was amazing. We really pushed through all of it fast. awesome. I can’t find the box to tell who sent it - if you know, PLEASE thank them and let them know how great it was! Best food in some time! It means a lot to us that people back home know we are here. We;re so isolated that it really is awesome to know. It means a lot to all of us.”
IRAQ 2007:
In 2007 we [[nina0133, SwatTeam, manna, jtill, patriciaruth, Enterprise, Ros42, Abigail Adams, mathluv, Just Amy, Jim Robinson] sent 66 care packages to our adopted Stryker unit at FOB Stryker at Baghdad up to their departure at the end of the summer --including a microwave [Enterprise], a Nintendo Wii [my optometrist], and 210 blue ice gel packs [SwatTeam and jtill].
We sent 39 care packages [deadhead, SENClander, JustAmy, Jim Robinson, Paperdoll, Abigail Adams, patriciaruth, 4Godsoloved...Hegave], 18 Petzl headlamps [Enterprise, jtill, manna, PigRigger, Kitty Mittens, MEG33] and a Christmas tree with ornaments [mass55th] to the current Stryker unit at Baqubah in Diyala Province, after we made contact in November.
To 3 NPTT (National Police Transition Team) units in Baghdad (at Camp Liberty) we [SENclander, patriciaruth, mass55th, Yaelle] sent 56 care packages including 22 Petzl headlamps [MEG33, SwatTeam, norton, Enterprise, jtill] and a Christmas tree [MJY1288] and ornaments. To one of these units (to Juan's brother Andy) we [Enterprise, Tunehead54, patriciaruth, my mother] also sent 12 boxes of school supplies for him to distribute to local school children.
To an NPTT unit at FOB Falcon near Baghdad that left in September we [patriciaruth, iceskater, Enterprise] sent 15 care packages and SW6906 sent most or all episodes of 5 TV series.
BALAD, Iraq 2007: 4 care packages sent for Christmas to mystery-ak's husband (doing another tour of duty).
FOB Prosperity, Iraq 2007: 1 care package
****
Our many generous donors of checks, cash, money orders, Paypal, shopping cards, phone cards, etc are listed in the Accounting posts toward the end of our 2006 thread (which also covers 2007) and which can be linked from the post below. Many of our members are now trusted to mail their packages directly.
Here it is, finally! I'll be adding many posts over the next couple of days to update our activities during the last 3 months.
Believe it or not: a new thread!
Prayer update on daybreakcoming (who has sent a half dozen prelit Christmas trees and ornaments to our units over the last few years). She did well after the first round of chemotherapy, and another round started in January. I haven’t heard since, as my mother is deteriorating and is taking up a lot of my time.
Interesting thank you’s sent to us from our adopted units can be found in the 2006-7 thread at the post numbers listed.
Thank yous:
post 1671, to Enterprise from 315th PSYOP at Bagram
post 1690 to Enterprise from Baghdad
post 1965 to patriciaruth from Stryker at FOB Stryker and later at Baqubah
post 2022 to patriciaruth from NPTT for 11 Petzl headlamps to NPTT at Camp Liberty
post 2072 to JustAmy from Bagram, Afghanistan
post 2118 to patriciaruth from Stryker at Baqubah, received headlamps, movies, etc
post 2153 to SW6906 from NPTT at Camp Liberty, Baghdad
post 2155 and 2177 to patriciaruth from HHC of NPTT at Baghdad for Christmas tree sent by MJY1288 and for the ornaments we sent to decorate it.
post 2168 to 4Godsoloved...Hegave from Stryker at Baqubah
Mailed March 14, 2007, to Stryker at Ba’qubah 3 more boxes
Box 5 (new large 12x12 flat rate), insured 99.52 (value100.52), postage $13.00
10 DVD movies:
Airplane! (Leslie Neilsen, Lloyd Bridges)
The Mask of Zorro (Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta Jones)
Independence Day (Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum)
Braveheart (Mel Gibson)
Gladiator (Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix)
Dodgeball (Vince Vaughn)
Lethal Weapon 4 pack with Lethal Weapon I-IV (Mel Gibson, Danny Glover)
19 bags/packs gum and Easter candy:
5 Packs 8 small Reese’s Peanut Butter crunch bars
3 Packs 8 fun size Snicker’s bars
2 bags Hershey’s dark chocolate with almond miniatures
3 bags Butterfingers’ chocolate foil wrapped eggs
4 bags Whopper’s malted milk robins eggs
2 packs 14 Eclipse sugarless gum
Box 6 (large 12x12 flat rate), insured $79.26, postage $13.00
6 DVD movies:
Men in Black (Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith)
Men in Black II (Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones)
Jeff Foxworthy: Totally Committed
The Untouchables (Sean Connery, Kevin Costner)
Witness (Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis)
Click (Adam Sandler)
14 bags Easter candy:
4 Hershey’s creamy milk chocolate foil wrapped eggs
2 Butterfingers chocolate foil wrapped eggs
8 Whoppers malted milk robins eggs
Box 7 (large 12x12 flat rate), insured $98.90, postage $13.00
6 DVD movies
The Passion (Jim Caviezel)
Walk the Line (Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon)
Frequency (Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel)
The Alamo (Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton)
There’s Something about Mary (Carmen Diaz, Ben Stiller)
My Cousin Vinny (Marisa Tomei, Joe Pesci)
17 bags/packs Easter etc. candy:
2 packs 8 small Reese’s Peanut Butter crunch bars
4 packs 8 Snickers fun size bars
4 bag Butterfinger small chocolate foil wrapped eggs
2 bags Hershey’s dark chocolate with almonds
5 Whopper’s malted milk robins eggs
Mailed March 13, 2008 to Stryker at Ba’qubah, 2 more, boxes
Box 3, value $56.98, postage $25.05
2 battery operated boot and glove dryers
11 packages Peeps chicks, yellow, pink, green, lavendar,and blue
1 Phillips screwdriver
Box 4, value $48.77, postage $8.95
4 cans of body powder
4 packages of 4 batteries D size
7 magazines:
3 Readers Digest Feb, March, April 2008
3 Weekly Standard’s on McCain, Obama, and Clinton v. Obama
1 Sports Illustrated on “The Catch”
Box 40 quart size zipper lock plastic bags
Prilosec little DVD of old Super Bowl highlights
Mailed March 7, 2008, to Stryker at Baqubah, 2 boxes,
Box 1, valued at $72.50, postage $8.95
29 shaving gel (donated by Enterprise)
Box 2, valued at $72.50, postage $8.95
29 shaving gel (donated by Enterprise)
Mailed January 18, 2008, to Stryker at Baqubah, 4 boxes
Box 1, value $32.10, postage $8.95
17 small Valentine heart boxes of 1.75 oz Russell Stover candy (3 pcs, dark choc truffle, choc caramel, choc nut chew)
1 small Valentine heart box of 1.6 oz Whitman candy
3 invidually wrapped Russell Stover choc Santas (2 marshmallow, 1 raspberry cream)
9 individually wrapped Russell Stover chocolate hearts, strawberry cream filled
1 magazine: Sports Illustrated Best Pictures of 2007
Box 2, value $34.71, postage $8.95
24 small Russell Stover 1.75 oz Valentine heart boxes of candy
9 small 2 oz Russell Stover Valentine decorated rectangular box candy
Box 3, value $29.34, postage $8.95
24 small Russell Stover 1.75 oz Valentine heart boxes of candy
1 bag cherry Tootsie Pops (~35)
2 small 2 oz Russell Stover Valentine boxes of candy
Box 5, value $29.34, postage $8.95
24 small Russell Stover 1.75 oz Valentine heart boxes of candy
1 bag cherry Tootsie Pops (~35)
2 small 2 oz Russell Stover Valentine boxes of candy
Mailed January 19, 2008, to Stryker at Baqubah, 4 more boxes
Box 4, value $27.85, postage $8.95
24 small Russell Stover 1.75 oz Valentine heart boxes of candy
4 blueberry candy canes
1 individually wrapped Russell Stover chocolate heart, strawberry cream filled
1 bag cherry Tootsie Pops (~35)
Box 6, value $38.46, postage $8.95
24 small Russell Stover 1.75 oz Valentine heart boxes of candy
7 magazines (Weekly Std 11/19 and 1/14; Readers Digest 11/07 and 12/07; Sports Illustrated 11/26 and 12/17; Decision 1/08),
5 newsletters (Imprimis: What Statesmen have to Teach us; 2 campaign letters from Fred Thompson; 1 campaign letter from Mitt Romney; Billy Graham letter 11/07)
1 local newspaper Jan 16
Box 7, value $31.00, postage $8.95
24 small Russell Stover 1.75 oz Valentine heart boxes of candy
6 magazines (1st Freedom 12/07, Sports Illustrated Man of the Year, Weekly Std 12/3 and 1/21, Readers Digest 12/07 and 1/08)
Newspapers: 1/17 issue local paper and L.A. Times Sunday comics
RNC 2008 Calendar
Box 8, value $31.75, postage $8.95
24 small Russell Stover 1.75 oz Valentine heart boxes of candy
7 magazines (Weekly Std 11/26, 12/10, 12/24, and 12/31; Sports Illustrated 1/14 and Year in Sports issue; Decision 12/07)
2 newsletters (Imprimis: Return to the Constitution; copy article on Holland’s post secular future)
1 L.A. Times Sunday comic section
Mailed March 13, 2008 to HHC of NPTT at Camp Liberty (MAJ C)
1 box, value $51.62, postage $8.95
3 packages Dove dark chocolate foil wrapped eggs
3 packages of Brach’s jelly bird eggs
3 packages of Whopper malted milk robins eggs
14 Cadbury chocolate orange crème eggs
14 Russell Stover coconut crème eggs
14 Russell Stover strawberry crème eggs
14 Hershey’s small chocolate bunnies
SENClander mailed March 7, 2008, to NPTT at Camp Liberty (MAJ H)
2 boxes (new larger flat rate boxes)
1 bag Tootsie products
1 bag Reese’s peanut butter eggs
4 packages Peeps chicks
1 bag marshmallow chicks and bunnies
1 bag large Robin eggs, chocolate filled
1 bag mini Robin eggs, malted milk filled
1 bag Cadbury mini eggs
1 bag Hershey miniatures
1 bag pastel candy corn
8 plastic eggs containing a Lindt chocolate bunny
1 wind-up chick/1 wind-up rabbit
1 package of capsules which expand into animals when water is added (thought maybe they could share these with the kids)
packed it all in green Easter grass.
Mailed February 4, 2008, to MAJ C’s HHC of NPTT
1 box, insured for $59.36, postage $11.00
1 TV series DVD boxed set: 24, season 6 (Kiefer Sutherland)
14 small heart shaped boxes of Russell Stover candy (3 pieces in each)
2 bags cherry Tootsie Pops
5 packets chicken flavoring
1 magazine: Sports Illustrated, latest one
2 newsletters:
Franklin Graham
Imprimis: Economy and Canada
Sunday comic section local newspaper
Mailed January 18, 2008, to Battle Company on Pakistan border of Afghanistan, bought with donation from airborne (90 power bars, 9 boxes Valentine candy)
1 box, insured $98.04, postage $11.00
9 small 2 oz. boxes of Russell Stover Valentine candy
1 box 12 Power Bars — oatmeal raisin
1 box 21 Marathon Snickers bars
2 boxes 6 Marathon Snickers bars
1 box 21 Power Bars Variety (chewy peanut butter and chewy choc peanuts)
1 box 24 Triple Treat Power bars (smores, caramel choc almond, forgot the other one ?peanut butter?)
NOTE: 2/20/08: APO now changing and will be kept dark from all but family.
My extended family always wants to send care packages, but we can't always get the name of a contact to send them to. Bless you all for the good things you, and the other FReepers, do for our soldiers!
Thanks so much, Sing!
When I was in Afghanistan the best care packages were homemade cookies and treats. The BX had pretty much everything else we wanted.
BTTT and prayers for your mother and you.
It’s great to see the new thread! Prayers for your mother, Patty, and prayers for daybreakcoming. And thanks to AlaskaErik for his service.
New thread woo hoo!
Most homemade cookies arrive moldy, so the DoD has asked us not to send them. Especially after 9/11 there was also concern that items from strangers might deliberately be contaminated and not just a source of accidental food poisoning.
Thus our group can only send commercially wrapped food items with an outdate on the package.
I’ll be posting the Restrictions list again on this thread, along with mailing tips later tonight.
Meanwhile, we would enjoy hearing a bit about your service if you would oblige us?
Not much to tell. One of millions who went into theater and did his duty. I was with the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. I flew on 77 combat missions all over Afghanistan as a C-130 loadmaster. Some of my more memorable flights...air dropping ammo while a firefight was raging on below us, flying some of the Gitmo detainees back to their country, flying a Canadian soldier from Kandahar to Bagram for airlift to Landstuhl after he was hit by friendly fire from one of our A-10s and flying Hamid Karzai to one of the villages in the northeast part of the country.
I know why you are modest about your service, as we have pictures of adopted soldiers doing many of the same services for our war effort and our country.
But you could have been unlucky and been chosen to make a really large sacrifice, and what we honor you all for is that you stood in the line and took your number and were willing to do what was necessary and take your chances.
We cannot ever thank you enough for that.
fanfan is a Canadian who has been involved with our group early on and sent packages to our American soldiers, and then graduated after a bit of experience and began sending packages to the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. I know she will be interested in reading your post above about your experiences.
When was your service? I know we killed some Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan with friendly fire early in the course of the war and that caused large difficulties in our relations with Canada. People often only see the movies that glorify war, and don’t appreciate the reasons why war is so terrible, including really tragic mistakes that occur in the fog and confusion of war.
Your experiences listed are all amazing, and you have truly been a part of history in the making.
Thank you for your prayers, dear Sister. We were playing with your stuffed gold finch this past week as it was in Mother’s Easter basket again. And she delights to her the bird song when the spot is pushed.
Mostly I am trusting God step by step day by day, and hoping that it is His will that she have an easy time as she winds down and passes to her next life. Probably some of that is selfish, that I not have a really difficult time taking care of her. :-)
How did you fare in the recent thunderstorm?
SwatTeam has just mailed me some knitted caps to put in care packages.
She must read your post above; it will warm her heart.
Thanks for posting.
Thanks for the ping, Patty.
Thank you so much for your service, Alaska Eric.
It is very appreciated. :-)
We didn't Get Any Hail, so I was Thankful for that, but the Pastures were a Sight; it Looked Like a World of Water! The King's Pond is Filled to the Brim, and Looks So Beautiful. There had been a Small Group of Ducks there Lately, but they Finally Flew Away. 7 or 8 Turtles Line Up Everyday on a Log in the Water, Sunning themselves, and Look Very Cute.
Your Mother was in my Prayers this Morning, and will be from Now On whenever she Comes to Mind. I'm Glad she Likes the Goldfinch; Bless her Heart, she is the Sweetest Person! I'm So Thankful our Lord's Mercies are New Every Morning, and that He is with her Daily, Surrounding her with His Love.
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