Wreaths Across America // 2012

We do this every year. It has become something we plan for and refuse to miss. It is part of These Hills... but this year, this year was different. The ceremony is always a bit emotional for me. I always have a habit of thinking about people in my own life when they tell the stories of lost soldiers. It is the ultimate sacrifice and I cannot imagine the pain of the families... but this year, this year was different.

The day before this event was the tragedy of Sandy Hook Elementary. On one day a single gunman took the lives of six adult and twenty precious little children. I still cry when I think of this day, I think most people do and always will . Again, all I could do was think of my own children and couldn't fathom the pain that was racing through these families. I prayed, I prayed a lot. I hugged my kids, I hugged the hubs, I hugged my family, I hugged my friends, I may have even hugged strangers (j/k) This day will always be one of those days. One of those where-were-you-when days.  So the next day, when I walked up to see this, holding my sweet kiddos, knowing they were ok and other's were not... I shed a lot of tears behind my big rimmed glasses. I listened to our mayor speak of the sweet lives lost and I wept. I had to turn so my sweet little boys didn't see that mommy was incredibly sad.

 

 

The day was to remember the people who made the ultimate sacrifice. Loomed in sadness of recent events, it was evident that we all needed to take a moment and be incredibly thankful of what we had, who we had and pray for others who were suffering a tragic loss.

We have all suffered tragedy, we have all suffered loss, some more than others but all still the same. Pray for the ones you love, the ones you lost, the ones you don't even know.

Teach your children the right thing to do. Slow down and take these moments to teach them how to do the right thing, appreciate what they have and what others have given.

and in the end, just do you best to raise them right. In this house, we aren't going up for parents of the year over here but we are certainly trying to make them as good as we possibly can. These things are important. These things are what matter. God bless everyone who has sacrificed so we can have the freedoms we do. And thank you to the families of those lost, the ones left here to mourn and celebrate the lives lost. My promise to you is I will do my best to make sure my little guys grow up respecting, understanding and knowing the meaning of patriotism. God Bless you all.