Please Read

I want to share a new blog with you all. It was started by Mary, Mary is an amazing lady. She is the mother to two fabulous little boys and one on the way. She is a woman of deep faith and Grace that I have rarely witnessed. Mary is a Marine (I would say Former but once a Marine always a Marine) and a volunteer, a teacher to her boys, and a wonderful supporter to fellow mil-spouses. Mary is also a brand new War-Widow. I didn't want to add that, because she is so much more, but she may forever be defined by that last title she has recently earned, not by her choosing, just the hand she and her boys were dealt. Her husband SSgt. Leon Lucas (Luke) was much loved and respected by all those who knew him and will never be forgotten. His loss will be mostly Mary's and her sons. We will stand by her in dark times and good times and hopefully for the rest of time. But I want to share her blog because in the short time I have come to know Mary, she has taught me so much. So please if you can support her blog please do so.
Thank you!
PS..couldn't hyper link her banner please just click Mary, Mary..thank you...

Wordless Wednesday--

Hubs with 2nd Platoon..

Amazing gRACE

Yesterday a group of the wives from our battalion went down to San Diego to be part of the America's Finest Half Marathon. Not all of us were runners, and some of us were but just couldn't run 13 miles for various reasons and some were running. But here is the what we all were doing, no matter if we could run or not, we were going to honor our fallen from our 3/4 family. This day wasn't about running, it wasn't about a single one of us but it was about reminding people that they should remember our fallen, our bravest this country has to offer and to NEVER FORGET. We all wore these fantastic shirts that were made by one of our Darkside Moms and on the back listed in order were our fallen. Our men are still in the fight, and we want to honor them as well. I have to tell you, if you can run, if you can't , whatever your shortcomings or strengths you have a voice, you can remember our fallen and our men still fighting. Put a sign in your front yard, take a marker to your shirt and put some names on it. Pick a name at random from the MANY there are. Take a name from a past war, put it on your facebook status, twitter it. The point is find a way to remember them, to say their name, to let others know them. To NEVER FORGET.



LEON LUCAS Jr.



CHRISTOPHER CAMERO




MARK GOYET




JASON HILL



PAUL ZANOWICK

Perspective

Today while I was getting my son's stuff together to take him back to his sophomore year in college it dawned on me. When the wars started my son was in the 4th grade. Now he is going into his second year in college and his dad is still in the fight, we are still doing this. It has been such a huge part of our lives, a dominating force that has controlled so much of the last 10 years I can barely remember what we used to have to plan around.
It really puts things in perspective...how long we have been doing this.

Do You Want Your Homecoming in a Music Video???

I very rarely have guest bloggers and never promote contest, but this one is well worth posting. It's for a great cause and I would love to see some of my readers have a chance of getting their homecoming featured in a music video. Also the sale of the CD as mentioned promotes Fisher House which I endorse 110%. Do you know there is a Fisher House at Dover AFB? It is a great place of comfort for families going to see their heroes final return to their final duty station. Fisher Houses are also a place where the families of our Wounded Warriors can stay to help care for their loved ones and spend quality alone time with their hero. Please take a minute to read and think about submitting your own homecoming, I can not wait to see the finished product.


I want to thank Heidi for letting me be a guest blogger on her Empty Nest & All The Rest blog. I'm helping a company promote a contest where they will be featuring videos of military personnel coming home/seeing their families for the first time in a long time. The cool part about this contest if you're a music fan is that 10 of the videos we get will be featured in a music video that will be played on channels like GAC, CMT, and other music channels. The person who uploads the our favorite video will be flown to Nashville to be on TV and introduce the premiere of the music video with the artist on GAC.

The song is "Soldier Coming Home" by Jamie O'Neal. If you're a country fan you probably remember Jamie's number 1 hits "There Is No Arizona" and "When I Think About Angels". It will be released on a CD called My Country Smash Hits 2 in November. The CD also features songs by Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert and more.

What's special about the CD is that some of the proceeds go to the Fisher House, which provides housing for military families when their loved ones are injured so they can be close to them while they heal.

You can upload your videos at www.soldiercominghomecontest.com right now. Hopefully one of the readers of this blog will be lucky enough to win the trip to Nashville or get their video featured in the music video. Thanks again Heidi for letting me share this info with your readers and I hope you get to see your husband soon.

Thanks!

Adam Moore

NOT JUST A NAME

My heart is heavy, my head wants to explode, this deployment may be too much at this point. Is it ever going to get easier? Is it ever going to stop? Will I come out of the other end of this without anger, bitterness and feeling defeated? We have another name, not a stranger, not a young man I may have passed in the hallway while visiting Battalion, or maybe a young man that held the door for me while coming to visit my husband. But a name I can put a smiling face too, a person that I laughed with, and who my husband had great affection for. A man with a wife I have spent hours chatting with, who I was really looking forward to getting to know better. Of a young father I witnessed pushing his sons around in a cart at the commissary while finding food to make for his wife while he was home briefly from some training, a man that has left the world with 2 young sons and another on the way, each one that has eyes that look back at me with the gleam of their fathers. My heart is heavy, my thoughts now with Mary, his wife and their sons. Knowing how this is hurting me, and imagining his brothers still in the fight, mourning one of their fierce warriors, one of their brothers, another name for the hero scrolls, but to us not just another name.
RIP SSgt. Leon Lucas Jr. KIA 8/1/11 We will never forget you....