A New kind of Story...

A lovely overcast Saturday morning opened my eyes to a new kind of "story." I was just waking up when my dad called to say that there was an Iraq soldier coming back from the war and there was a little "welcome home" surprise for him. I didn't really know what was going to happen, but it sounded very cool, so my mom drove me over to what I had always thought was just an ordinary street. She dropped me off and I walked over to my dad. He handed me an American flag, and we and about 20 or 25 other people waited for the arrival of this amazing hero.

After about ten minutes, we heard horns honking and people started saying "he's coming!" And so I stood off to the side of the street as two policemen on motorcycles drove by, and following them was a little black car. There was one man driving, and Elliot, the hero, sitting next to him. He had on a black shirt with a black jacket on, jeans, and sunglasses.

I would have never known that he was fighting for our country. He arrived and his mom gave him a big hug. There was a little ceremony, where a bunch of supporting groups were mentioned. One group that is big is the Blue Star Moms, which is an organization for mothers who have their children out in the war.

I would tell you all of the groups and all of the things that were mentioned, but this post would be too long! :)

Anyway, what I got out of it was amazing. This man who lived in an ordinary house in an ordinary town had volunteered to go out and fight for the country. One lady asked him when he was to go back, and he said the 21st. Then she asked how long he was going to still be in the service, and he said,


.... ....... . "Two years. I'm not done fighting yet."


Those words have just stayed in my head since yesterday. The bravery and courage in that young man is just out of this world.

As I said in the beginning, this opened my eyes to a new "story." I always talk about bravery and courage and heroes, but I don't usually think about the amazing soldiers at war right now. It just blows me away that that ordinary street with the one house that looks like every other house could have such an amazing and courageous story. I will never think of the war the same now that my mind will remember that there are soldiers out there, and that we are still fighting.

Amazing.