Deployment One

Delivery Day. All I can say is that we defineatly overwhelmed them!

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Here we all are on the bus heading down the road. Lots of happy faces and dressed up kids!


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This is all of us unloading the quilts. Good thing there were lots of arms... thats all I'm saying'

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The kids and teachers put together a little presentation to talk about what it takes to make a quilt. And what a Quilt of Valor is.

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Then one of the students sang "I'm Proud to be an American" . She sang it a capella - and boy howdy does she have a set of pipes. I'll admit - I had a tear or two!

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I have to tell you that this was a neat trip again. I will tell you that we truly did overwhelm them with the number of quilts, and the quilts were more than the soldiers in attendence.

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But I have learned that when one door closes, God can open another one. I want to explain that over the next few days. And hope you all will still love me.

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This delivery was a bit different for me because I feel so responsible for all of your quilts. And I wanted to get a photo of each soldier with the quilt that you made. But this wasn't meant to be. There are a lot of things in this world that make me happy - so I expect they will make others happy too, but they don't.

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The air was different this time. The morale of the soldiers is not high. There are things happening on base everyday that we civilians aren't quite privy too, or are even able to comprehend. Wounded soldiers die every day. There is an awful lot of PTSD, and it effects everyone in such different ways. Even being afraid of kids, or to be in public, or of flashes of the camera.

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I know many of you wanted the press to be there. I didn't, and as time went on in our prepping, the soldiers didn't either. They don't want to be a dog and pony show all the time, they don't want to have their problems and injuries on display all the time. These injuries are not badges that they want seen every day. So the press was not there. We did take photos, and will share them with you. I do have a couple of video clips - that once I figure out how to get them off the camera to the computer ( this is where Wrangler Man excels!!) I will get them to you.

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I will probably mix posts of quilts received here, and of the soldiers, as I am still emotional. I learned that someone that I had known had taken his own life due to some complications of injuries, and this just breaks my heart. I am a fixer, and a do-er, and apparently I didn't get that he needed fixing. And if he could do that - how close are these soldiers to that edge? I want to help - not hurt any one of them, so need to present quilts to them on their own terms.

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