Monday, June 15, 2009

Not Forgotten

I wanted to get this down before it slipped my mind... again. On Memorial day the girls asked why there was a sticker on their calendar. I explained VERY briefly about it. VERY briefly. I really thought they were a little young to "get it". Boy did they prove me wrong. We were driving down the road HOURS later and the oldest asked, "Will Daddy be like the soldiers we think about today? Will he have to die too since he is a soldier?"

Wow. You wanna talk hard? Try answering that one. I did and it brought up more questions, so I explained about freedom. I told them that lots of Mommies and Daddies are soldiers and go far away to fight for us and that Daddy joined so that one day he can take his turn and that will let another Daddy be home with his kids and that is part of the reason why we are so proud of Daddy.

The conversation kept going and has returned over the past few days. Just a random, hard to answer, question every now and then. But yesterday the youngest said, "Mommy, can we go see the soldiers who died for us?" I explained that they would be buried and she said she understood, but wanted to see them anyways. I was amazed.

How many times do we underestimate our children? Obviously I am quite guilty of that. I hope we are all helping raise a generation of children who will want to see "The soldiers who died for us" and that they will understand how blessed we are to live in this country.

Kristen Jeffery