letters from home

As I have mentioned before, it is so nice to receive letters from home. I have received letters from my wife and even some from my daughter which I have hanging on the wall in my estate room. I have received letters and cards from the rest of my family and friends that I too have hanging on my wall. I have also received letters from school children that made it a group effort to write me even though they do not know who I am, and in those letters they tell me about what they are doing in school and about their friends and family. It's like they are writing to a friend. They have asked me questions about what I am doing, how I like it over here, if I have any pets, what my house is like here, and if I have any friends here. Some have even drawn me pictures of what they think it's like over here or their idea of what I am doing here. Most are with guns and tanks as they have probably seen on TV or in the movies. I absolutely love them all.
But out of all the letters and pictures that I have received there's been one that has touched me the most (now let me say this, the stuff from my wife and daughter are THE most precious stuff I have received and what I am talking about is out of all the other letters and pictures). Just recently my brother sent me a couple of pictures his son, Sam, had drawn about me. I am not sure I can poetically describe what these two simple pictures mean to me so here take a look...



How great it makes me feel that my nephew thinks this about me. How great is it that he not only thought that about me but also took the time to put his pencil to paper and come up with this. This deployment has been hard on everyone. It has been hard on me because of not only being away from my loved ones but also for obvious reasons of where I am. It has also me been hard on my wife and daughter. They are probably stronger than I am and have handled this deployment very well. In spite of the difficulties associated with being apart and being in a war torn country, my nephew has given me a new step to my gettyup. Thanks Sam. Thanks for thinking of me. Thanks for making me into a "superhero". I love and miss you.