faithfulness

While talking to my aunt on her birthday, she mentioned that they were going through albums trying to find photos of family members in their service uniforms. My cousin had been in a house where they took one wall and made it a wall of honor, with pictures and clippings of close family members who had been in various branches of service. Really liking what she saw, my cousin has decided to do her own version.

My aunt has always been the family historian, and as we got to talking I realized I had a few things she didn't. In 2003, my cousin was sent to Iraq. Stationed at Camp LeJeune, he was not willing to leave his car and belongings in storage on base for six months, so Bobby's Uncle went with me to pick his car up and bring it here. (I can't drive a stick shift.) During the time he was gone, I saved every newspaper that mentioned the war, anything about his unit, or a unit that could possibly be his. So the last few days I've been scanning in articles and photos to compile to a CD. And yesterday, I spent a fair amount of time searching for one photo in particular.

Yahoo did an AWESOME job during the Iraq War of mounting photos daily. One of the photos they had, and certainly not the worst photo, made me cry and led me to the throne of grace like only two other times in my life have. Six months later, I found out my cousin was in that photo. He's the one in the middle, trying to open a cookie:

The boy to the left, sitting with the gun is from Florida.  His hometown newspaper somehow recognized him, blew the pic up and printed it on the front page. His parents mailed him a copy. That's how Kev found out about the picture.  There's nothing worse than seeing a loved one in such squalor conditions.

But despite it all, while looking through all the newspaper clippings, I've been reminded of just how much our country has been through the last ten years, as well as how FAITHFUL or God is. He has never left us; never forsaken us. And that is impressive indeed.