samwise the brave

13 hours and 11 minutes…and we’re here.  of course the cost of the gas alone is enough to make you have to sit down even with a higher efficiency vehicle…still spent about $160.  it is 728 miles by way of westerville to pick up our oldest.  we’ll be up early to watch the motivational run at 0700.  we’ll only be able to see Jed from afar, but will get some time with him at 1000 when liberty starts.  my parents and my aunt and uncle are headed down for lunch tomorrow.    that’s it for now.  will post pictures and more thoughts/stories tomorrow.

in just a bit this morning we’ll be headed south to parris island to see our son Jed graduate as a US Marine assigned to 1st Bn Alpha as part of 1st Bn Alpha. its been 86 days since he stepped off on this amazing adventure.  the letters home have been more than an encouragement.  in fact the first letter written on 1 july contained the greatest encouragement of all…he said he “finally thinks he got it”.  of course i ‘ve joked that we should have sent him a few  years earlier if we would have only known.

each following letter helped to chronicle his journey into manhood and a deeper understanding of his place in the larger story.  there’s much emotion that fills these next couple of days.  and for our family jed is the first in several generations to serve his country.  i’ll be posting as we go as well as posting on twitter so follow along if you’d like.  please pray that our travels our safe.

when he left, he only had his clothes on his back.  but when we leave parris island friday afternoon we’ll have two sea bags, a garment bag, and a ditty bag for his 10 day leave.  fun stuff.

the world inside the marine family is huge.  here’s a great website of a One Proud Marine Mom, Gretchen Miller whose good work has been a huge help to us as we prepare to travel.