Archive for July, 2011
With You All The Way
Recently, our ‘With You All The Way’ USO tour for military kids took us to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, NC. The visit was powerful, moving and tear filled. So many hurting kids came up to us after the presentation to share their own stories of deployment, loss and divorce. As I was about to leave the auditorium a young girl stopped me and shyly handed me a thin rubber bracelet. Tearfully, she told me her dad had died in combat in Afghanistan and that was one of four bracelets he had given her to wear while he was away. I was reluctant to take something so important to her, but she insisted that I have it, because, she said, she wanted to connect me to her dad. As I put the bracelet on there was a collective, “Aawww,” from the kids around us, which erupted into a spontaneous, unforgettable, group hug. (See above.) During the hug one of the kids, with tears in her eyes, rested her head on the shoulder of the girl who gave me the bracelet and said, “It’s okay…we’re with you all the way.”
