25 July 2010

Humility

First and foremost I want to apoligize for the delay in my posts. It has been a crazy week!

So, as I sat on the plane last night with my beautiful girl in my lap, I was watching her play with the only thing that keeps her quiet on flights; my husband's dog tags. Also with his dogtags is a dogtag I made with a picture of him and I at his graduation from basic training. My daughter loves this dogtag and gives 'dada' kisses as well as puts it up to my mouth for me to kiss. It nearly breaks my heart and puts me to tears to see her go so crazy over this picture of him. Next to me was a woman and her daughter who was about 11 years old. They were staring at my baby girl as she kept making me kiss this dogtag so I laughed and said, "she loves to have me give her daddy kisses. It's the only thing that keeps her calm and quiet on flights". They both smiled and I heard the little girl whisper to her mom, "Mom, why isn't her daddy here?". Her mom looked at me and at the dog tags and whispered back, "Because he probably couldn't come...probably because of work or something.." In my head a million things ran through. I wanted to tell them of my husband's amazing sacrifice of having to be away from our sweet one year old and of all the milestones he is missing in her life. I wanted to tell them of the heart ache I felt when I saw a couple holding hands or a father with his child. I wanted to tell them about the hours he's working in the hot sun and how tired he gets. But...I didn't. Just because we have so much pride in our men does not mean we have the right to rub it in everyone's face. Sure, we have a tough life but we must be humble about it otherwise we look snobby and like we think we're better than those who have a relatively normal life. I am proud of my husband and all that he does and of course I want everyone else in the world to be proud too but that doesn't mean everyone needs to know about it. I know so many people who use their husband's job in the military to get attention from others and in my eyes, that is not okay. If someone asks, I will tell them but I am not going to flaunt it and act like I am better than any other wife. All wives and moms work hard, military or not.

4 comments:

  1. I loved this post...the image of you sitting there with your little girl kissing the dog tags was touching and it made me smile. It's amazing how something so simple can be so meaningful, and I admire your humility and your dignity.

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  2. Yes I loved this post too Heather! So sweet how Lena kisses his dog tags! And I agree about flaunting the military to others, I don't like it when people do that. I also admire your humility! We are praying for you and your beautiful family! Miss you guys!
    <3MaryAnne

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  4. I sent you an award!
    See it here:
    http://thepunkrockmom.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-have-been-bestowed-great-honor.html

    And here is a link to the image:
    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-lNrAOEEAQA/TFiqj-miSrI/AAAAAAAAAE4/_PFffNmgSuU/s400/versatile-bloggeraward1-150x150.jpeg

    You deserve it! Now it's your turn to give it to some awesome bloggers you love!
    <3MaryAnne aka thepunkrockmom

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