Joe came over to our house last christmas and we shared an evening of stories together as he showed us pictures of his time in Iraq and answered all of our questions.
Here is a picture of Joe and I:
In his email titled "Field Trip" Joe Said:
"We went to a local school and gave away some toys and candy to the kids. It was really a blast. It was hard to believe we were here and not some school back home. It was like there was no language barrier once we saw their faces."
Joe gave me permission to share these photos and use his name here on my blog:
An Iraqi Boy asks Joe for some candy.
Joe Shakes hands with an Iraqi Boy.
Joe is standing in the back of this room, second from the left
Iraqi School Children
We pray as a family for Joe. In fact tonight, Andy said a food prayer on our supper, and Ben chided him for not mentioning Joe. We don't usually pray for Joe during food prayers as they tend to be short and sweet, but Ben always remembers to mention Joe and asks Heavenly Father to keep him "Safe and Strong".
Joe's Mom Ruth who is in my ward also sent an email today sharing this web site for LDS Military Moms.
In her email she called for a day of special prayer tomorow: She said:
"I agree.
We need to join together in asking the Lord to protect our service men and women.
We also need to join together to ask the Lord to soften the hearts of those who promote terrorism.
We also need to join together to ask that the world leaders may be guided in doing the Lord's will.
I strongly feel we have not used the words "Thy will be done" often enough. It seems each leader is jocking for a postion of greater power and it leads to less peace and understanding. Right now I have a son and two great nephew-in-laws serving in Iraq.
Like everyone else I would like to see them home safe and sound. But I would hate to think we left those who truly want freedom and peace in their lands left out to dry our nation.
Please make Jan 21st a day of special prayer."
I told Paul about Ruths special day of prayer and we plan to get on our knees tomorow with our children to petition the Lord that "His will be done", as Ruth suggested.
Ruth and I had a really fun day last year when we went "Freeping" in Denver. Here is the after action report sharing our adventures on the Free Republic web site:
And here is a picture. I am standing on the UN Flag and Ruth is in the purple Mom T-shirt. This was a very memorable day. We were three women alone (our fellow Freeper Jan took the picture) standing against a Rent A Mob moonbat contigent at the Denver Capitol.
At Free Republic Ruth's moniker is Army Mom Ruth: In summing up our Freep she wrote:
"A few comments and observations of my own after reading Jenny's and Jan's. I did enjoy my self.
Some of the things I noticed were both sad and humorous to me.
The military guy who kept saying he had spent 10 years in the service did leave rather abruptly after I caught his eye,smiled and said, "Honorably I presume".
One woman spent about 10 minutes talking about this and that and how she knew what was right since she had lived abroad. What she really wanted to do was convince me the whole concept of American democracy is wrong. Her idea of a great country is Sweden. Then she lit into the capitalists when I let her know my unflattering opinion of Sweden and socialism. when I let her know I was all for capitalism she decided I was a real nut case and left.
The sad/humorous part of it was they don't know the issues, they just keep spewing out rhetoric from someone else and the longer they talk the more they contradict themselves.
Some people did want to exchange ideas but most of the people wanted to make you agree with their point of view and it seemed most of them were there just to bash Bush. As Jan said, when someone said "Well I support the troops" I'd tell them not according to my son who served over there.
Those serving over there think you either support them and their efforts to better the lives of the Iraqis or you are under mining their efforts. He actually called them back stabbers. I love it when I can say "according to my son who served over there". People cannot argue with that. I have also had two nephews who served in Iraq. In fact my son and a nephew were over there at the same time. My son and the other nephew also served in Desert Shield.
One woman had her kids standing down by the street with a couple of signs that said THERE IS NO REASON FOR WAR, when we were leaving she tried to stand in my way. I looked her straight in the eye and said, "But my dear, just think,if we had not had the war called the American Revolution you would be speaking with a British accent right now. Her mouth dropped open and she moved out of my way.
A fun way to spend some time."