Birthdays and Brothers

Sean's birthday is coming!

He will be four.  I can't believe it.

While talking about a birthday party, Caden expressed concern.

"Why can't I have a birthday?"

"I want to have presents too."

"I can't eat cake because I'm allergic to milk, remember?"

"I'll never have a birthday."

"If he has a party, I'll be sad."

 

Sean said,

"Caden, you have a birthday too!  And we'll have a party!"

"Caden, you can have one of MY presents."

"Mommy knows how to make no-milk cake because she's AWESOME."

"We can share my party!"

"But I'll be sad if you'll be sad."

 

Brothers. 

They fight a lot.

They get in trouble together.

They tell on each other.

They promise to not be friends if they tell on each other.

They take each other's toys.

They make up with hugs.

They hide from mom together.

They say they're sorry.

They promise not to tell mom.

They share toys and play together.

They love each other and hate each other.

In the same hour.

Sometimes in the same fifteen minutes.

They will always be there for each other.

Brothers.



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It's Prep Time for Thanksgiving LoL!

I love growing my hair long.  It's easy to keep up in a uniform and you can do so many fun things with it.  A few years ago, though, I found something REWARDING and useful about long hair.  I can donate it!  There are children with cancer or disorders that cause hair loss and believe it or not hair costs thousands of dollars!!  I learned that for one hairpiece, roughly 10 ponytails of donated hair is needed.  This hairpiece is super expensive.  Locks of Love (LoL) is a charity organization that collects donated hair and pays for the creation of hairpieces for children whose families cannot afford to purchase them.  Their website totally moved me and inspired me to donate my hair.

Locks of Love is committed to providing the highest quality hair prostheses (hairpieces) to every child suffering from long term or permanent medical hair loss. The hair prostheses provided are custom-made from donated ponytails and would retail between $3,500 and $6,000. Locks of Love provides them for free or on a sliding scale, based on financial need. These prostheses are different from synthetic hairpieces because they form a vacuum seal, and do not require the use of tape or glue. Only the wearer of the prosthesis may remove it, by breaking the vacuum seal at the temples. Children can dismiss insecurities about classmates pulling off their hairpiece, or losing it during sports. They can also swim and shower with it in place. Wigs do not provide these needs for every day activities of active children. This sense of security allows the children to get back their self confidence and be kids again. -- http://locksoflove.org/mission.html

After learning all about these little children who wait for their own full head of hair, I was deeply moved and in December 2007 I donated eighteen inches.  I walked into my shop the next day and the priest I worked with stared at me with a dropped jaw.  "What have you done!" He exclaimed.  "A woman's hair is her glory!"
I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders.  "Someone else will have my glory then," I answered, quite happy that I was able to give. 

I made a promise that I would donate everytime my hair got long enough.  It costs me nothing but a haircut.  And some kid out there is gonna have a bigger smile on their face when they get their finished hairpiece in the mail.  That is amazing to me.

So... the preparation will begin.  Right now my hair has lots of grays in it.  Although LoL accepts gray/white hairs, they don't use them on the hairpieces.  Those hairs are sold to help with manufacturing costs.  I'm thinking of dyeing it but not until I get closer to cutting day.  Also, my hair is layered.  The longest length is right at my rear end and the shortest is at my waist.  I think I'll have it cut straight across so they're all one length.  I've got a few things to do before giving my hair to someone else.  I want to make sure I give good healthy hair and not dry strands with split ends.  Which is why I've decided to prepare my hair months in advance.

My goal is to donate at least ten inches, if not more, on Thanksgiving day this year.  The hair will be shiny, healthy and soft.  I'm thinking maybe some multivitamins will help. 

Say a prayer for me!

Find out how you can donate your own hair!!

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Operation Santa

Not many people are familiar with my deployment location.  When I was outprocessing my base, I got many looks of confusion about what I was to bring with me.  It is not a common deployment, so I was asked lots of curious questions none of which I could answer.  I even got the “Oh you’re going on a vacation!  That’s no deployment!”

But being out here is no vacation.  It’s not shaking with mortar attacks, but it sure as heck isn’t a day at the beach.  We’re still a bunch of deployed folks stuck in a box surrounded by barbed wire and concrete walls.  We still miss out on holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and other special events that we want to share with our loved ones.  We don’t get free access to the civilian life outside (except for rare occasions like shopping for supplies).  We are deployed.  Plain and simple.  Just like all deployments, many of us would rather be home.

So when I see people leave the mail room with a box in their arms, I know without a doubt that a friend sent them something special because of the grin on their face.  And I know when someone leaves empty handed, their tight-lipped smile tells a story of hope for a package one day.  This Christmas, my boss and I decided to bring packages to EVERYONE deployed out here.  We wanted each person to hold something in their hands that was sent to them by someone who cares.

The first step was brainstorming.  What could we get them?  How?  Who could we go through?  Easy peasy.  Everyone here loves most of the same things:  hygiene products, coffee, snacks, feel-goods (for girls, nice smelly stuff and for guys, cigars and … guy stuff) and believe it or not—toys.  Yep.  We like puzzles, games, footballs, teddy bears, anything that brings out the kid in us.  Rubik’s Cube is HUGE. 

The “how” and the “who” came easily—USTroopCarePackage.com and other care package companies that exist solely to support the troops.  These companies are just incredible.  And you’ll see why soon.  Once I researched places that supported the military, I simply submitted requests for a REALLY BIG care package donation.

I contacted US Troop Care Package, describing our mission and giving them an estimate of how many troops were out here.  In a month, we received HUNDREDS of mini Christmas stockings filled with candies!  But we didn’t want JUST candies.  We wanted our troops to feel special. 

Every month, we do a “recess.”  Yep, like an elementary school type of recess.  Without the jungle gym of course.  Basically, we brought out brain teasers and snacks and announced that it was time for people to stop what they were doing and stretch!  Get some fresh air, play a brainteaser game.  Take a break.  ToySmith once donated a sample of toys like the Rubik’s Cube and other puzzles.  Everybody who went to recess absolutely loved it.  We got so many notes of appreciation.  Their morale lifted immediately!

So I contacted ToySmith directly through e-mail and told them how much our troops appreciated their products and asked them if they would kindly donate a Christmas donation of toys.  I immediately received a response from them and a few weeks later, several boxes of games and toys came in the mail!

The stockings and the toys were certainly a huge blessing!  Well, God had a better idea.  He drove people from the United States to send wonderful care packages “just for the troops during Christmas.”  And He enabled us to do a big shopping trip for more care package items.

Sorry, Prancer, Santa's got a new ride!

Operation Santa took place.  And Christmas was brought to our deployed sites.  Not by reindeer… but that wasn’t a big deal.  Because gifts came to our troops by way of special military distribution.  Helicopter, baby!  A few boxes came on small planes as well!

We were able to distribute large boxes filled with Christmas goodies to all of our troops both on and off our camp.  We were just ecstatic to have been able to do this!

A huge THANK YOU goes to US Troops Care Package, ToySmith and all our friends and family!  We couldn’t have done it without you!

The Deployed Folks' Santa

Santa's new transportation!

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Shopping for the Troops

Recently, I got a chance to do a big shopping trip for the troops that are deployed in my location.  Of course, we couldn't get individual gifts for everyone so we had the idea of putting together care packages for different offices and outstations.  The gifts I bought were basic quality of life stuff like hygiene items and snacks.  Simple things, I know, but we deployed folk are simple people with simple desires. 

Shopping took place in a big city far away from our camps.  It was nice to get away and breathe some fresh air, see some different sites and enjoy some really cool privileges.  My balcony had a great view overlooking the hotel pool and the sea!  In the morning, I got to see the ships in the distance.  Totally blessed to have been given such a great opportunity.

One thing about malls is that you'll always find some really interesting items for sale.  If you stop and look, you'd be amazed at some of the beautiful things you can find.  Of course, most of the time you'd probably get ripped off.  But still!  It's cool to just look at them... if you can manage to escape the sales rep. 

One sales person really tried hard to sell me a rock tied to a rope and said it was supposed to give me protection.  I kept telling her it was definitely a cool idea but that I wasn't interested and was just looking.  I really was just looking and simply wanted to check out the cool colored stones and interesting designs.  But she followed me around, so I thanked her and walked away.

I'm not much of a crowd person.  I totally tense up in malls, festivals and other environments that are filled with people and noises.  Don't know what's up with that, I just know I don't like it.  So it's quite a stressful thing for me.  When I'm home, I don't stay in Walmart any longer than I have to.  My grocery shopping is really mission-oriented.  Get the stuff on the list and get out.  So although getting to leave the camp and stay in a nice hotel was a real treat, I definitely had to work for it and I was certainly tired and ready to get back!

I was able to buy shampoos, lotions, body wash, and so many other hygiene products that are hard to get our hands on!

People actually thought I was working at the store as a stocker because my cart was filled with all these items!  I had people speak to me in their language, asking where they could find certain items.  I had workers look at me weird, probably wondering why they had never seen me working there before.   

I also bought coffee, tea, hot chocolate and a bunch of cookies and other snacks!!

Not sure what's up with the Gizmo picture?  Check out the Gizmo Project!

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The Quiet Sniffle

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from or where you’ve been.  It doesn’t matter if it’s your first or your twenty-first deployment.  At some point in your tour, you will spend at least one night crying in your room hoping your roommate doesn’t hear you.  It’s just a fact, something that’s bound to happen.  And when you’re laying in bed with your laptop smoking under your fingertips and you pause your typing because you think you hear sniffling from the other side of the room, anyone who isn’t an asshole will understand that his/her roommate is just having one of those nights.

A few days ago I was blogging, content with my own form of escape when I heard my roommate sniffling.  She’s new, only been here a whole week.  Newly married.  Young.  Sweet.  And already having the Skype fights with her hubby (Skype connection sucks in our room so it’s kinda weird that she wouldn’t just type-fight).  If I’m in the room while they’re arguing (and she usually tries hard to keep herself calm but I can still hear the sadness in her voice), I either leave or just put in my earphones and play some music so she can have some privacy.  I usually just remind myself that she’s in a new marriage that is facing its first deployment.  It’s tough on young couples.  So I shrug it off and not ask any questions.  But when I heard her sniffling, I felt really sad for her.  It sucks crying alone after a long distance fight.  They can’t even get the chance to kiss and make up.

Tonight, I walked in and noticed her eyes were puffy.  I told her that if she needed anyone to talk to, I’m here for her.  I figured she’s in a new place with new faces and dealing with relationship drama all by herself.  She could use a friendly shoulder.  She was very sweet at thanking me.  Maybe in time she’d open up.  Even if she doesn’t open up to me, I hope she’ll find a way to cope with the situation.

I’m thinking of getting her a small care package.  Maybe a bear or something sweet to hug.  I told her she could borrow Gizmo if she wanted, half-jokingly stated but if it would help, I’d lend him over in a heartbeat!  She declined.  I’m gonna have to get her a stuffed animal.

One of the toughest things you face on your deployment is the darkness, the silence, and the prayer that your roommate doesn’t hear you sniffle when you’re having a rough time.  I’m going to make it a goal tonight to order her a stuffed animal to hug.  Everyone needs a deployment comfort.

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