Care Package

Hello to everyone! Hope your day has begun well and continues to do so. Me? Fine, thanks for asking. I got up, "with the chickens" as usual. My daughter has become a raving fan of my biscuits and even though, her dad is away, she still wants biscuits this morning. However, that's okay because  it fulfills a need that I have within me. :)

I am joyful this morning! Exuberantly so!  Why? I just came to a full realization of something. Let me explain it as best as I can...
Years ago, when my son left home and joined the navy, he was stationed onboard an aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Roosevelt.  Now, if you know anything at all about aircraft carriers, you know that they are deployed at sea months at a time. My son, who we had no phone contact with, wrote me a sad, sad letter and this is what he said to me, "Momma, I am so sad. I can never get away from the Chief or other officers because they are everywhere. It's like I am always on duty. It is like, I am always on base. I can only go as far as the edge of the ship and they are there. Momma, it's water, water everywhere. Please don't say, "I told you so, Momma. I just couldn't take it, if you did."

 Well, let me tell you. That letter galvanized me into action! I thought about the "kitchen talks" that we used to have when he was a child growing up in my house. When he would come home after having been at school all day, I would always look at his face to discern his day. If  I saw pain, I addressed that, sorrow, I addressed that, etc. Now, here my child was, a half of a world away and he needed me and I couldn't get to him to look  at his face to gauge the depths of his worry or pain. So I went into my mode of doing "Momma stuff." (More about this later)

I first thought about how I could get to him since that dratted stool sat over in the corner, empty. Then I thought, "Well, no phone, so I will just have to write a letter." Then I got to thinking, there is only so much that you can put in a letter. I thought to my self, "I need him here so that I can talk to him and smother him with love a little bit." Then I thought, "I know! I will send him a little bit of Tennessee!" Those of you who are mothers know just how I felt. Those of you that are daddys know how you have seen your wife or your mother get when there is a child or a sibling off from home and she cannot get to them. That is what I became,  a Momma on a mission and I would not be deterred, not by the phone, not by dinner being late, not by anything! I gave my daughter a pre-dinner snack and I got busy writing!

Thirty minutes later, when my husband came in sniffing the air and looking for dinner, I told him, "Go down to KFC  and get a box of chicken, sides and the biscuits. I can't cook now because my baby is in trouble!"  He took one look at my face and out of the door he bounded. I finished writing my letter and went down to the post office and mailed it right then.

When I got back home my husband and daughter were sitting at the table eating chicken out of the box rather somberly. After I washed my hands and sat down at the table, I told my daughter that I wanted her to write a letter to her brother. She piped up with, "Is he sick?" I said, "His heart is sick because he wants to come home and he can't." She said, "Okay, I'll write him a good letter." When I turned to look at my husband, he had that look on his face that said, "Not me! I ain't writing no letter!" When I mulishly set my face and my eyes started swimming with tears, he said, "Okay, you write it and I'll sign it."  I did and he did.  I said all of that to say this...  (oops this post is so long. Come back tomorrow for the ending part of today's blog.)