Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Wish Our Devil Dog A Happy Birthday!

 Back in November, we adopted a Marine through Soldiers' Angels. SA is a fantastic organization that helps deployed service members, wounded warriors, veterans and families. There are lots of different ways to get involved. Some don't take much money, just a little time to write a letter and a stamp to mail it!

I've mentioned this before, but I joined SA after watching a web show on SOFREP called INSIDE THE TEAM ROOM featuring three former Navy SEALs including Chris Kyle, who inspired me to do more than just say "Thanks for your service" when I saw a uniformed service member or met a veteran.

I sent off our first letter, introducing our family to him, then went about making a care package. A Christmas care package due to the date and mailing time to the Middle East. Delivery times slow way down to the volume being sent.


Many times, you never hear from your adoptee. You're told when you sign up not to expect a response. Who can blame the service members for not being in touch. They are busy over there, working long hours, often seven days a week. But you keep writing your letters and sending your care packages to show your support and gratitude for what they're doing and hope what you're sending is things your "silent soldier" wants or needs.

Sometimes you get an adoptee who has access to a computer or likes to write letters. Those letters are called "free mail" because the service members aren't required to use a stamp. They write "Free" where the stamp would go. When you receive an email or letter, you feel oh-so-blessed to have heard back.


I wasn't expecting to hear back from our adoptee. But we received an email from our adoptee the day his letter arrived. Talk about a wonderful surprise. He sounded so nice and excited to hear from us. Since then, we have been in almost daily contact (depending on his workload and what he's doing). It's been an awesome experience for the entire family.

We love him so much. He calls us his "beautiful family" and he is a big part of it now!

Well it's his birthday!

His cake arrived in time, but his other birthday boxes didn't so this will be a prolonged celebration. (So glad I thought to stick a couple boxes of Little Debbie snack cakes in the party box!)

I thought it would be nice to collect birthday greetings in the comment section and email them to our favorite Devil Dog. I'll also give him a link to the comment section.

If you'd like to leave our Marine a birthday greeting, please post a comment and I'll send it his way.

Thanks! And oorah!

Semper Fi