Home At Last!

Never has 7 months seemed so long! Just after 2200 hrs. (10:00 p.m.) on April 6th, we had the privilege of joining several hundred other families at Camp LeJuene, N.C., to welcome our Marines back from Iraq. To stand in the midst of that cheering crowd of anxious onlookers as those buses rolled in was unbelievable.

I don’t think we will ever forget that night; seeing what has become such an obvious answer to prayer. Fear is a powerful motivator. For almost 210 nights we had read the 91st Psalm and prayed for God’s protection and safety on our son. Our prayers were answered. For the majority of our son’s life we had been the protectors, the caretakers, the parents. We had been on the sidelines of countless baseball games, basketball games,and golf matches, cheering as our son did his part in supporting the team. But for 7 long months our son was half a world away, protecting us and millions of other Americans. There is no place for a mom or dad on the sidelines in a war zone. Our roles have changed but our feelings haven’t. We are still our son’s enthusiastic cheerleaders and even have a sticker on our car that reads, Proud Parent of a United State Marine.

Our son’s return was marked with a measure of sadness for the loss of 3 men in his company and more than 50 wounded. Since the war in Iraq began over 4 years ago we’ve been made aware of the death toll on the nightly news. We know the death toll is nearing 3500 but perhaps we are not as keenly aware that almost 18,000 have been wounded. How we need to be praying for all of those families.

After several days of tying up loose ends we were able to leave North Carolina and head home. The drive home was unbelievably more enjoyable than the one just 7 months before as we saw our son off to war. Finally the 6 hour road trip was over. As we turned into our street we were greeted by cars parked on both sides of the street and a flag-waving crowd of friends, neighbors and church members lining the driveway, milling around in the yard waiting on the arrival of “a young Marine” home from war.

Life doesn’t get much better than this. The only thing left to be said is, “To God Be The Glory, Great Things He Has Done!”

In a couple of months our son's enlistment will end and he will be discharged from active duty. Because of security concerns I had to be somewhat cautious about what I published online. Over the next several weeks it would be an honor to share some of the details of this four year journey. Thanks so much for your prayer support!