:-(

I'm not sure whats going to come out...but I need to process.

 I miss my sister. There a tangible ache in my soul. Oh, how I long to hear her voice and know she is safe! I don't know why, but this is harder. With Josiah, it was hard, but perhaps it was because he was National Guard, or because he was "MadDog" or maybe it was just because we never heard anything to worry over.
This time it is so much different. It's my baby sister. She is in hostile territory. She had an incident last week that shook me to my core. Last night I caught a 3 second blip on the TV and got weak in the knees. I can't talk about it with my other sisters or Mom because we literally can't get the words out. But at the end of the day, we know it will be OK.

She made this choice and trained for this. This is her purpose. I can't understand it, and I don't need to.  I don't even have to pretend to like it. I just have to pray. I am going to start planning for her welcome home party. She made me promise to bring the girls to welcome her home. And I will. I will do whatever it takes to be there, with banners and flags, to wrap our arms around her when she gets off that plane! To take my girls and show them what strength, courage and resilience really looks like.