Friday, May 14, 2010

Shocking Change in Life--Deployed

This is my gorgeous older sister, Tamara, soon to be a famous author. (her first novel, Perilous, will come out in print in August.) Teacher, business owner, currently moving out of one home and into another. Incredible mother of 2, soon to be 3 in a few months.
And that good looking guy with her is my wonderful Brother-in-Law, Mark. He's the guy that can pretty much do ANYTHING he tries his hand at. no, I mean it. ANYTHING. (history teacher, management, home remodeling, plumbing, repairs, foster care, writing, mentoring, wrestling, personal training, construction, deputy, and the list goes on...but most importantly he is an amazing husband and father) and he excells at EVERYTHING. Most likely because he puts all his trust in the Lord and never takes any of the credit for himself. He is a man of great moral courage and faith for whom I have the greatest respect.
Mark is being activated and deployed to Afghanistan for 13 months. They had less than a week after the phone call before departure this weekend. We will miss him. His sacrifice will mean he misses his baby's birth and first 10 months in addition to the special moments with his other 2 boys. We will be praying for him--and for his family--every day. This is just a small tribute for Mark's service and sacrifice for our country and for us. It cannot cover all our feelings.
Our hearts go with you, Mark. We love you.

8 comments:

  1. This post made me cry. I had my husband gone for 6 months of my pregnancy but he was here for her birth before he left again and I get to talk to him all the time. (And in one more week we'll actually live in the same place again!) I have a brother-in-law that just got back from a year in Afghanistan and his wife had twins while he was away. I am so proud of those men that serve but my heart goes out to the families on the home front.

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  2. Thank you for the lovely post, Elisa. Everything about this situation makes me cry, so I avoid talking about it. And yet it's very hard to believe this is happening to us. Mark's date has been moved to the 22nd of May, so we have another week, and I just keep thinking they'll just keep moving it and moving it and it will never come.

    Anyway...we're kind of in a funky emotional state right now.

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  3. I hope everything goes well. I am so grateful for the service he and others like him perform for all of us.

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  4. Wow. That is so scary. Such short notice too! I sure hope that all goes well, but that is hard on the whole family.

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  5. Wow, thanks for reminding us the sacrifices that are being made for us. I'm so sorry for your sister and her family! (they are so cute!)

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  6. Such a lovely post Eliza. Deployments are so difficult on the service members and family. I have many friends currently deployed including my husband. For your sister all I can say is good luck! You have a world of support out there through your FRG, support groups and forums and the like. You won't be alone, and you'll be prayed for and thought of often.

    I do however want to stress the importance of OPSEC while dealing with military operations. It is very important to practice good measures of OPSEC both before and during deployments. As it keeps both the mission and our service members safe.

    Here is a link to a trifold on it:

    http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/sfrc/OPSECTrifold.pdf

    Lets be cautious while discussing actual troop movement dates as it could be another puzzle piece to the world.

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  7. I agree with everyone else Elisa, what a sweet post. I wish Mark the best of luck and appreciate him and our other brave men in the Armed Forces who sacrifice so much for our freedom.

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  8. We just had a friend get back from Iraq this past month. He is my best friend's husband so we were praying often for his safety. The whole experience sort of came to life when you actually know someone who is going over there. Anyway, he documented some of his experiences over there on his blog and it is pretty interesting stuff...

    http://longbow-desertpanther.blogspot.com

    if you're interested. Good luck to your sister's family!

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