Almost another month has gone by and being Veteran's Day and all, felt like an appropriate time to update. Have been in touch with my son through whatsapp. He's a bit disappointed because everything they were going over to do changed when we pulled out of Syria. Seems like it through the entire area into a bit of restructuring. He was supposed to be knee deep in the field but has spent most of his time on base. Which is perfectly fine with the rest of us! I hope he stays bored for the rest of his deployment. My wife and daughter-in-law have been very active in the Family Readiness Group. They adopted his entire platoon for sending over these camo Christmas stockings full of stuff. There are 30 of them I think in that platoon. Their actions ended up organizing some of the other families to adopt the other 2 platoons. So now the entire unit or whatever will be getting these stockings at Christmas. It's not cheap sending all that over there so my wife and daughter-in-law reached out on FB for donations. It has been very cool to see the support. One of his wrestling coaches donated a nice sum of money to help with shipping and supplies (it costs $400 to send one platoon these stockings in shipping alone). Other parents from the wrestling team when we were there reached out. This entire thing has been tough on my wife as that is her baby boy. When he was born it was just her and him that first year before I met them. They will always have this incredible bond. She will always be the only person he has been able to count on since day one of his life. She's had a couple nights where the tears have opened up to me but for the most part she has jumped into supporting the FRG and being a pillar of strength for my daughter-in-law. A couple weeks ago my daughter-in-law called her at 1:30 am on a work night in tears because the youngest wouldn't stop crying. "I'll be right there" was all she said before she threw on some clothes and spent the next hour and a half with them getting our grand-daughter to go to sleep.
The best result of this entire thing is getting to be so involved in our grand-kids lives. They are over every day. My grandson is 2 and is a hot mess as most 2 year olds are. Yesterday we outside getting the yards ready for the coming winter storm and he was checking out the shed in his back yard. His momma told him "You don't want to go in there, it is gross." He paused at the door looked back at her and said "Grandma poop in there?" I couldn't stop laughing. A month or so ago I had something back up in my basement bathroom tub. He was checking it out with me and I told him "Don't touch that. It's gross! I think grandma pooped in the tub!". Apparently he still remembers that conversation.
Happy Veteran's Day to all that serve and have served. It's an amazing sacrifice you all gave and we can't thank you enough. Without you guys, we wouldn't have the lives we live today.