Dec. 16, 2001 ~ Worries
Our son joined the Army last May. He was just home for a visit last month, and since he is so new, he didn't expect to have enough leave time to come home for Christmas. But he called last night and it seems that he will be able to make it home for Christmas after all. When I heard this news, my heart sang! But in the next breath, he said something about being deployed to Afghanistan. Surely he wasn't serious, I asked. "Well... (long pause) that's probably just about all over now. If we do go there, we'll probably just be peacekeepers." More questions from this worried mom, and it turns out that the talk is that his unit WILL be deployed somewhere in January. Now, this is just talk. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. And surely they won't really go to Afghanistan. But he says it will probably be somewhere in the Middle East.
I realize that every single soldier probably has a worried mom, dad, wife or child... someone who loves them and wishes they would just stay home and stay safe. We all know that SOMEBODY has to go overseas, someone must go to the scary places. After hearing the news on September 11, my very first thought was of my son. Surely we wouldn't really go to war, and surely they wouldn't send our son yet... he was much too new. He needed more training. My husband and I have comforted ourselves with that thought, have repeated it with assurance and knowing nods, on an almost daily basis since September 11.
Our roles seemed reversed last night. My son tried to explain it to me, almost as a parent speaking to a fearful child. "Mom, you know how we have all those soldiers stationed in places all over the world? They can't stay there forever. We have to go take their places, so they can come home. We have to take turns."
Ah, well. No point in borrowing trouble, is there? But I am by nature a worrier, and no matter what I try to tell myself, this will be on my mind. I'm going to try to leave it alone, to put it in God's hands, because it's one of those things we can't change. And it's best to accept the things we can't change.
That's what they say.
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