I had lunch with my brother Keith today, who will be deployed for Kuwait in February. He won’t be officially in Kuwait right away, but stationed in Mississippi for six weeks before he leaves for the 24 + hour flight to Kuwait.
Now I realize it is hard to tell in this picture, but I am the older one. <GRIN> We are nine years apart. It’s so surreal when you realize someone is leaving for overseas and all the memories that come flooding back- flashes of images of him as a little boy have played like a slideshow in my mind the past few days. Remembering also he Christmas he got slippers and he was so excited he yelled, “Lippers!”
For as weepy as I felt last night and this morning, I didn’t cry hugging him goodbye. Maybe in part because I will see him yet at the official send off ceremony Feb. 4th- but also because I saw my brother, before me, ready for this journey. Sure of wanting to be in the National Guards- sure of wanting to be a soldier- sure of what feels right to him. That has not always been the case, so to see him confident in what he wants is a wonderful thing to see.
Though his mission has changed and it is not quite as “exciting” as he hoped it would be- I am still in awe of him leaving behind the comfort of all he knows to be in a new country- a place of unknown.
When he was nine and I was eighteen we seemed worlds apart…but now with him almost 40 and I almost 49 the space seems closer together. So though we will be worlds apart… our hearts will always be connected.
God Speed little brother. God Speed. I love you.
