For Jessie's sake

I have been doing a good deal of thinking about ongoing events in Japan, northern Africa and of course the ongoing situation in Afghanistan. I know these events make us all feel vulnerable and grief stricken, and the overwhelming nature of tragedy can sometimes make us either want to throw up our hands in helplessness or give in to numbness.

Military families experience the connectedness of humanity in a unique way. When unrest or disaster happens on another part of the globe and the military becomes involved, servicemembers and their families are immediately affected. Reading the news becomes much more personal because the stakes are that much higher.

It is still unbelievable to me that I am part of a military family. For most of my career, I have been a Montessori educator which holds peace education as its cornerstone. I work with young people in conflict resolution skills and have been amazed again and again at how young children are able to both state their needs directly and forgive easily.

A large part of peace education is teaching children how to let go of stereotypes so that they can truly see the other person or group of people. I admit(to my shame) that in the past I have held stereotypes of military members as being mostly two dimensional white alpha males who scream often and rarely listen. I know now that this is far from the truth. Both my relationship with Alan and meeting other wonderful folks in the military over the past couple of decades have helped to change this perception drastically. While Alan and I disagree about many things politically speaking, he is one of the most gentle and humble men I have ever encountered. I truly consider it my HONOR to belong to the military community.

As I wrote in one of my prior posts, I knew that Alan would be going on a deployment this spring. At that time, we thought we knew when he would both leave and return. We were both confident in the fact that he would be here either right before or soon after the baby was born, and then would be preparing for retirement soon afterward and we could finally be a "normal" family, whatever that means.

With the unstable situation on the world stage, however, times, dates, and mission have all changed and everything seems uncertain. He will definitely be gone for longer than either of us had anticipated and there is no guarantee that he will be home for the birth of our daughter, Jessie, or when exactly he will be returning afterward.

Yet even with the uncertainty, there is so much hope. Every time I feel the baby move, I am reminded what a huge gift I have been given in motherhood and being able to honestly say that I know without a doubt that we are well loved and cared for. Scripture is full of reassurance that no matter what apparent darkness may present itself, it can never extinguish the light. I will continue to believe that love triumphs over hate, good triumphs over evil and light dispels darkness even if it makes me appear naive.

I have to, for Jessie's sake.

"I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!" Psalm 27: 13-14

Listen to this song(This is just so beautiful) by Jenny and Tyler... it says it all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4k3RwLONbk