Family Support Day

We attended the family support day for the families of the 432nd. I could have never anticipated how much it would help our family. I was amazed at how the children opened up and at how in one day they went from feeling somewhat resentful to proud! Proud of you and what you are doing and proud of their part in it. It was really the first time that they were raised up for what they are sacrificing, it was the first time they were told thank you. The most touching part for me was when we were watching a slideshow of the soldiers from the 432nd. Everytime a picture of you would come up C would shout with glee and a huge smile on her face "DADDY!!" Near the end of the slideshow there was a picture of your departure that I had not seen before. It was a picture of you hugging M goodbye. The look on your face says it all. A couple of minutes after the picture was shown M came up to me sobbing. It had touched him deeply because he wants more than anything to have his Dad hold him. Two of the leaders of the group saw him with me and told him it was o.k. to cry, that everyone understood that here. It was just the way he said it, with tears in his eyes and so much compassion, that meant so much. M did cry, he did not feel embarrassed, and that was so important for us to not feel alone. When we got into the car after the day was done, M said it was one of the best days of his life! The girs likewise were very happy about having gone and thanked me for taking them. I want to thank Chris Schoeder and Amy Lauder and the people from Operation Military Kids for all that you did for us, you will never know just how much it helped.

And here is a little clip from the day, P is the baby with the ball in the beginning.

For some reason it won't link it but if you copy and paste it and put it in the address bar it does work, sorry!

http://myfoxwisconsin.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=6458812&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1