I like my bed.

I like my tempurpedic mattress. I like curling up in the blankets when it’s cold outside. I like waking up to the smell of coffee brewing downstairs. I like turning on the TV to see what the weather will be so I can decide what clothes to wear. I like deciding what clothes to wear! I like my heated leather seats warming my bum on the way to work, looking at the mountains and the beautiful sunrise as I slowly make my way in for my 8 hour work day.

I like being able to decide to leave my packed lunch in the fridge and go out with friends instead, or go shopping at the mall to grab a quick Christmas present. I like watching the clock inch closer and closer to quittin’ time then leaving my work at work and heading home.

I like my home.

I like watching my son grow.

These are a few, a very few, of the things in my daily life which I love. These are just a small fraction of the things that our service men/women have chosen to give up in the name of our country. In earlier wars men gave these things up for years upon years, never knowing when they’d get them again. Never knowing what their new baby looked like, not hearing of his latest ailment until 3 weeks after it was over; not knowing how old he’d be or what his voice or laugh would sound like when daddy would return home. In the current war they give these things up, come back to them and reacquaint themselves, and then all too soon they strap on their packs and give it all up again.

Wives leave them. Kids don’t always know them. People don’t know how to treat them. But they do it anyway. They come back different people than they were when they left. They can’t explain it, and they are unable to connect with many people on so many of the struggles they’ve endured. Their lives are forever changed, most often tainted, and yet they still stand, salute, and vow to serve.

I don’t know what it is like to live in a country where war and famine and persecution of great magnitude exist every day. And it’s because of the sacrifices of a group of elite people that I will never know these things. It is because there are people who hear a calling and answer it, regardless of what they will have to give up in order to do so.

I am so proud to be a granddaughter, stepdaughter, sister, cousin, and wife of men who have answered this call, and I am so proud to honor them as well as the people who have suited up next to them. I am eternally thankful for the life I’ve been blessed with, and part of that blessing has come at their expense. There is no way I can repay them, but they do not ask for repayment of any kind.

Happy Veteran’s day – to our past, present, and future veterans. Thanks for all you do.


- manda