TheBeth says Happy Memorial Day and introduces Jay & Sara:
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.I’ve know Sara since she was seconds old. In fact, I cut her umbilical cord. Jay is my son’s best friend.
Their parents, Frank & Tiff are very good friends to David and me.
I think that every parent out there would agree that the birth of a child is one of the greatest highlights in life. Being there to witness the arrival of such a precious miracle- is a gift itself.
So how did it happen that I was in the delivery room with Tiff- and not Frank? How is it that I saw Sara’s bright, blinking eyes- heard her pissed off cry- before her own father?
Frank is in the United States Air Force. He found out that he was being deployed overseas when Tiff was eight weeks pregnant. He left for a six month tour when she was four months along....
Be sure to read the rest. It's common to talk about death and injuries but y'all civilians rarely bring up what business folks call "opportunity cost." The price of missing major family events and just plain watching your kids grow up. After awhile you stop counting the funerals, weddings, anniversaries, holidays, births and birthdays...
We retired from the Navy and discovered that while we'd been following Uncle Sam around the globe, y'all had been building equity in your houses and getting on a cycle that made that second (or third) car fairly easy. Y'all had been building up a nicely stocked household while we'd been having to ditch the iron, the fans, the mixer and such 'cause they'd only work on the local electricity supply we were leaving behind.
I'm extremely grateful that I was there for every one of our kids being born but I've got strong memories (and extreme gratitude) of a night when some folks escorted my wife and (then) two daughters into a conference room for a Valentine's Day videoconference. My wife says the ~20 month old went around for weeks pointing to the TV and wanting to talk to Daddy!
So one more reason to stop that person in uniform and say "thank you." And cut 'em some slack if you see them eying that iron at your yard sale! ;-)
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