Flu Shots and Puppies...Living a Life of Faith

Today all the packages were finally mailed off to Ryan. Included in the batch was a very special box, filled with Kleenex, bubblegum, paper towels and a brand spankin' new American Flag.

I also got a flu shot, picked up my RA medication and got to meet Fargo, my Alpha Gam sister Sarah's new dog....what a sweetheart of a puppydog!

So it has been a good but busy vacation week. Coming off of Legacy Weekend with my sobriety family, I started the week with Uncle Jerry's burial and got to attend two funerals and three meetings. I got to spend time with Jillian. Most important of all, I got to send off the flag to my soldier.

The guys are not allowed to fly a US Flag where they are because of the 'message' it sends to the locals: they see it as a declaration that the United States is staying, and that is not what we want them to think. The fact that we might be staying on in a non-military capacity (can you say Lithium? Apple and Microsoft can!) is not the point. The powers-that-be in our Defense Department do not want our men and women to come under attack because a native thinks a US Flag on a US military post means The Great Satan is here to stay.

I also want to make clear that this is not a new policy...it is one that the military has followed for much of the ten years we have been at war.

So I sent the guys of the First Squad, First Platoon, G company, a new flag.

Now, they are not supposed to fly it where anyone can see it but them. They are to stand in front of it, take a picture, sign a card (I included it since I figured their chance of hitting the Hallmark aisle at the local Walgreen is nil) and return it.

I am going to present it to Julie and Dean Danielson.

Julie and Dean run the Military Support Group at St Joseph's. Because of them, and many others who are much more active in the group than me, 800 boxes get sent to our men and women away from home every three months.

Those boxes are filled with supplies, goodies, books, Rosaries, Bibles...you name it, they send it.

And every time Ryan has made a special request, they get it for HIM.

So I thought, they deserve a flag flown by a combat unit in their honor, as a thank you.

Now my plan is that Ryan bring the flag, the picture and the card home when he comes here on leave in July. And then he can give it to my two favorite people here in Modesto.

I am so amazed at the people, the real backbone of the country type people, who have reached out to our men and women in the military. My friends Kathi and Tony are two fine examples of what it means to be a real American. My friends Julie and Dean are two fine examples of what it means to be real Americans and faithful Catholics. I am surrounded by angels in human form.

Because of people like these, I can walk in Faith knowing that I may be by myself sometimes but I am never alone.

Not that I am feeling lonely or down or anything, but there can be times when the Ol'Red Legs (as my Cajun Sissies call him) can poke at your most vulnerable spots...and the fear of being alone is a fear I often have to give to God. But whenever I am praying and asking God to remove this fear, He gives me these people to remind me that no one can possibly be alone when they have people such as these in their life!

I am so grateful. I am so grateful for all my life is today. I get to be a woman of grace and dignity because of a God who loves me, a Sacramental Life that is second to none and sobriety.