Distance on birthdays

September 29, 1990 - I remember it as if it were yesterday and it seems like it was!!  It was very windy and gray outside, but a warm windy.  I can still hear the announcers at Oneida High School announcing the Varsity Football game as my mom and I walked around the block.  I was having some pains and was hoping they were labor pains because I was already 8 days past my due date.  That night at 11:01, my 9 lb. 3 oz. 21 inches long "little boy" was born  How in the world did 20 years go by already??  He is well over 6 feet tall now but he will always be my little boy.  It is his 3rd birthday in a row away from home.  I got to thinking today that I have not spent a birthday with him since he was 17.  It breaks my heart.  No parties, no dinners, no cakes.  At least this year and last we could talk to him on the phone.  I cried tonight when we hung up.  Hearing him say he loves us and misses us just brought me to tears.  I swallowed them until we hung up.  He is at Army training at the present time - the Navy has put him in the Individual Augmentee program.  He sounded exhausted when I talked to him at a little after 8.  They are working 4:30 to 7 each day.  He was doing his laundry and going to bed.  I got to thinking about next year - the big milestone birthday "21" and we won't see him for that either because he will be on the other side of the world in Iraq.  My hope and prayer is that he won't be needed for the whole year and they will send him back to the US or put him on a ship even.  I love that boy more than he will ever know and a part of me is missing without him.  I feel very empty inside and I know it will only get worse as we approach the new year.  So hug your children tight and appreciate every moment, even the bad ones.  At least they are there with you to have those bad moments.  I promise you that you will be watching them turn 20 before you know it as well!!!

This picture was taken this summer when our very good friend Mike Skupin came to town.  Matt brought venison to church and cooked some steak for Mike.