Sacrifice

Note: I originally penned this really heartfelt blog Thursday evening.  However, when I added a picture from my phone, it wiped the entire blog. Which really stinks, because this was a really great one!  Hopefully you can enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed the other one :-/




For the last week I've been away from home and work at a school I need for my job.  In the military (and as a DoD civilian) we call this time away: TDY.  I'm only about 35 miles away, but in Washington D.C. traffic it's like being an hour or four away.

It sucks every night while I'm gone.  I miss my daughter.  Yet, I have to stay focused on what I'm here for. My command paid a lot of money for me to attend this important school.  The training isn't only important for this one job, it's actually vital to my entire career in the federal government.  It's truly an honor they have spent the money to send me.  And I can't mess it up and be the next GSA or Secret Service scandal!

But while I'm gone I miss my daughter terribly. Leaving every Sunday evening and hearing her cry makes me cry.  I cry for the first few miles on the road every time.  I cry after we Skype.  I cry when I see the sitter post a photo on Facebook or text one to me. I cry when I go to dinner and the waitress sits a family with a toddler daughter a couple months younger than my own right next to me.  I cry a lot.

But it could be worse.  I could still be on active duty.  I could be deployed for six months to a year.  I could not get to drive home every weekend and see her.  I could not get to skype with her.  I could not get to see pictures of her every day.  It could be much worse.

And I'm grateful it isn't worse.  I'm grateful that there are men and women in this country who make the choice every day to get up and put the cloth of our nation on and go to the remotest corners of the world so that I can drive home on a Thursday night to rock my daughter to sleep.  I'm truly blessed to be in the company of great, American heroes who sacrifice those moments with their children so that I can spend time with mine.

I am honored to have served along side some of the most incredible people in the world.  The kind of people that stand up for their values and pledge each day to make a difference in the world.  And I'm truly grateful those people make a huge sacrifice, so the small ones I make aren't so hard.   I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.








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