Thank you to our heroes!

It’s 9/11 once again. Thank you to all of the men and women who are fighting to protect our country and our freedom. To some this is just another day and the fact that men and women are making the ultimate sacrifice for us doesn’t really sink in. For others who have loved ones serving or who have served it’s a day filled with emotions. Every day a loved one is deployed is a day filled with prayer for a safe return, please pray for our service men and women not only today but every day.

If some of you are wondering why Andrew has been noticeably absent from my posts it’s because he hasn’t been around since June. Andrew did a 15th month deployment to Iraq in 2007 and came back with lots of souvenirs among which are an injured back and knees, nightmares, PTSD and a whole bunch of other things no one should have to deal with. He wasn’t given the treatment he should have gotten, or any treatment at all really, until he was home and had a seizure from all the medications he had been put on, hit his head and had a traumatic brain injury. Finding my husband laying on the ground, seizing, with blood running down his head has probably been the scariest day of my life. That was the first, and hopefully the last time, that I’ve had to call 911. That was in October 2009.

Andrew was finally medically retired from the Army in December of 2010 but his wounds, both inside and out, stayed with him. If you have any experience with the VA you know you’re not getting the highest quality medical care and in my experience they seem to be more concerned with masking symptoms by any means possible than actually fixing what’s wrong.

Thanks to his family’s love and support Andrew is finally getting the treatment that he needs. Yes, some of his issues were already a part of his life before giving his life to the Army but they were only made worse and he was never given a true chance to heal from the mental, emotional and physical scars he got in Iraq. So today I am grateful that he came home in one piece and was able to give me the worlds sweetest little girl. And I am especially grateful to his family for standing by him and giving him so much love and support. Andrew is getting great treatment and that would not have been possible without his family. I will forever be grateful to you for helping Annabelle get her daddy back.

**Thank you Christina for the gorgeous pictures!