Cards for Heroes Memorial Day Blog Hop

If you've landed here as part of the Cards For Heroes Memorial Day Blog Hop, welcome!! If you landed here by chance and you've never heard of Cards for Heroes, check out the website for details of the blog hop and all the great prizes/blog candy here.

Cards For Heroes is a cause near and dear to my heart since our family was a military family for over 14 years, so I am particularly happy to join in and pay tribute to the men and women of our armed forces. The instructions for joining in the blog hop suggested including a story about your own military hero. There are countless acts of selfless bravery performed by our military all over the world every day and I'm certain that there will many inspirational pieces in the entries of my fellow bloggers but I chose to dedicate my entry to all the military spouses out there who also serve. It's kind of long, but once you're done reading, please continue on to Dawns' blog. You are in for a treat - she does fabulous work and her coloring skills are amazing! Thanks for your support of the Cards For Heroes Blog Hop!

When God Created the Military Spouse

When the Lord was creating the military spouse, He ran into His 6th day of overtime. An angel appeared and said "You're having a lot of trouble with this one. What's wrong with the standard model?"

The Lord replied, " Have you seen the specs on this order? It has to be completely independant, possess the qualities of both mother and father during deployments, be a perfect host to 4 or 40, handle emergencies without an instruction manual, move 10 times in 17 years to different locations all over the world, have the patience of a saint while waiting for its mate to come home and have six pairs of hands"

The angel shook her head slowly and said " Six pairs of hands? No way." The Lord answered, "Don't worry, we will make other military spouses to help. Besides, it's not the hands that are causing the problem, it's the heart. It must swell with pride, sustain the ache of numerous separations while remaining true, beat soundly even when it feels too tired to do so, be large enough to say " I understand" when it doesn't, and say "I love you" regardless."

"Lord, " said the angel, gently touching His sleeve, "Go to bed. You can finish it tomorrow." "I can't, " said the Lord. "I'm so close to creating something unique. Already it can heal itself when sick, on a moment's notice it will willingly embrace and feed total strangers who have been stranded during a PCS move and it can wave goodbye to its spouse from a pier, runway or depot and understand why it's important that they leave, even while it breaks"

The angel circled the model of the military spouse very slowly. 'It's too soft", she sighed.

"It may look soft , " the Lord replied. " but it has the strength of a lion. You cannot imagine what it can endure."

Finally the anget bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. "There's a leak, " she said. 'I told you that you were trying to put too much in to this model." "It's not a leak," said the Lord. "it's a tear" "What's it for?" asked the angel. " It's for joy, sadness, pain, loneliness and pride." "You're a genius" said the angel.

Looking at her somberly, the Lord replied "I didn't put it there"

** edited to add** As I make my way around this blog hop I found one lady who pledged for every comment she recieved, she would make a card for CFH. I love that idea and plan to do the same - comment away everyone!!!