"He's workin!"

This blog may not really be very progressive, but I had a very touching moment today, and I'd like to share.

I stayed with a friend (Amber) last night, and her mom babysits for people during the day. Today, she was keeping a little girl named Alyssa. She is 4, and VERY cute. She's hyper and giggly and everything a little girl should be. Her dad is in the Army, and I'm not sure what her mom does for a living.

Usually, little kids don't take up with me much, but she must be the one exception in the entire universe. She grabbed me by the hand earlier this afternoon to have me watch the fire in the fireplace with her, then she proceeded to 'get me' (poke, tickle, grab my hands, etc. just playing in general) when I sat down with her. I played back and flipped her upside down, swung her around, and talked to her. She told me her full name and her alphabet (give or take 5 letters), and her address and her mommy and daddy's names. Then, Amber's mom walked in and said, "Alyssa, tell them where your daddy is."
She looked up at me and grinned, "He's in Iraq!!"
"What's he doing there?" Anita asked.
"He's workin'!" and she went back to laughing and playing with me, but her statement almost brought me to tears.

Her mom is here with Alyssa and her 8 month old brother and they just went through the holidays without a husband and father. Alyssa isn't old enough to understand about war or terrorists or bad people in the world, she just knows her daddy is a long way from home and he's "workin'". It really made me think about all these soldiers and their families back home. I can't imagine what it's like to be so far from home during the holidays. I try not to write blogs that start an argument about whether the war is right or wrong, because even I don't know what I think about it, but I always encourage people to support the troops. They're the ones not at home this holiday season and who knows how many more holiday seasons to come.

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