Sand Storm

Dear All,

Busy fun days here for me! Though we have more staff now I am still as busy as ever. I am enjoying every minute of these last days here and trying not to miss a thing.

We had a bizarre sand storm last week. Different from any of the others we have had there was no wind. It was more like snow storm. The sky went from clear to brown to yellow to bright red. It was almost eerie. As you would walk outside you would get sand flakes on your clothes. That morning when I got up it was like footprints in the snow.

1200 Sand Storm outside my room...

1300 Sand storm outside my room








1400 Walking out from bunker.... Teresa and I ran some errands that afternoon and had the opportunity to go down into one of Hussein’s big bunkers that are on base. They are all over everywhere, some of which are used by different units but most left vacant. They are refurbishing this particular one for office space for a new unit coming in. It had it’s own air filtering system that would have made it nuclear war proof. All very interesting! From the outside they look like pyramids and they go down as deep as they are tall. I have always thought it would be cool for the USO to have one for a center. I can just see the whole side of it painted with the USO logo.

I have been packing and mailing stuff home as the day to leave is approaching fast. I am hoping Angela gets back from R&R before I leave. I can’t imagine not getting to say goodbye to her. She has been such a joy.

I love you all and will see you soon.
In His Mighty Grip,
Linda

Going Postal!!!

Dear All,

I have so much I want to tell you but for right now I will share my heart about my post office experience today. I will write later to tell you about and send pictures of the most incredible sand storm and my Black Hawk ride. As I near the end of my time here, I don’t want to miss a thing and am exhausted but flying high on loving the guys and girls I love so much.

Today was my regular scheduled run to the Post Office to mail UTR. It is probably one of my most laborious tasks that I do. I go with 100+ packages. Each packages content has to be searched and inspected and then sealed up and signed. Once all are inspected we begin the task of weighing and paying. Each custom form has to be stamped on all six pages and then placed in a plastic holder and taped to the package. It is a long process and normally takes at least two hours. I have a standing Wednesday and Saturday morning appointment. They let me come in thirty minutes before they open to try and expedite the process. By the time I am out of there the line behind me is long and as I walk out I keep my head down. No eye contact. THEY ALL HAVE GUNS, YOU KNOW!!!!

Today it hit, as I place each package on the scale to be weighed and processed to go the reality of leaving here hit and the cherished memories of these troops and their families painfully weighed on my heart. Nakeed, Chloe, Jamison, Mia, McQuade, Quentin, Delasia, Sammi, and I could go on forever with the names of the children that these Untied Through Reading packages have been sent to. The stories their dads, moms, aunts and uncles have shared are forever in heart. This has truly been and amazing adventure and leaving is so hard. My heart is torn between being with my precious family and serving here with the troops I have grown to love so deeply. Their faces are forever etched in my heart. Day before yesterday this beautiful Marine, who was stranded here a couple days came in to read to his children. I took him in to get him all set up and as I did I ask how old his children are and he did not respond. I looked up to see this beautiful young Marine, father of five with tears streaming down his face. The only words he could get out were Madam, I just love my family so much.

Another dad yesterday at the SF camp was so excited to share that they were expecting a new baby and he had just found out it will be twins. You always hear about pregnant women glowing, well this young dad was glowing. So Proud!

I must tell you thank you for your support and for supporting this program. The thousands of books you have sent and or money you have sent to USO headquarters in honor of this program is making a huge difference. Our troops and their families are being blessed by you. Never doubt that you don’t have a voice here. I love to tell the troops of all you have done and watch them grin in humility and pride.

I love you and will see you soon.
In His Mighty Grip,
Linda

Pictures

Dear all,

I thought I would send you a couple pictures. This is not of my hair cut. I don’t have ones of that. This is Angela, myself and Teresa with some of our Navy and Army volunteers. They are wonderful and spend their off time at the center helping us. With out their help we would not and could not be very effective.



We have had one of our worst sand storms today. It was different to any other. The wind was not particularly blowing but the visibility was pretty much nothing. The center is always packed on days like this as so many get stranded here. It was fun and we were able to finally get everyone on the phones and computers.

This is one of our Air Force guys. I found some drawing tablet and colored pencils and he was drawing all sorts of pictures.





I have not told you but we have all new computers. A very special friend from home sent us all new computers and it has been such a huge blessing to us. Our previous ones had so many issues and it made it really hard. There are always Internet issues but prior to now it was a dual issue between the old computers and the Internet provider we have. The troops are so appreciative and our computers stay full from the time we open until closing. I was amazed our Internet worked as well as it did today with the nasty sand storm.


A veteran's group in Florida sent boxes and boxes of drink singles for the troops. It has been wonderful and greatly appreciated by our troops.

For those of you who do not know John Micah is at Fort Stewart in Georgia training and preparing to deploy to Iraq. I will be home in time to go out and see him and be there when he leaves. I can hardly bear the thought of him returning to this country. I stand again in that place of, I don’t know what the future holds but I do know who holds John Micah’s future. We will once again pray our son through this deployment.

I love you all bunches and will see you soon.
In His Mighty Grip,
Linda

Good Days

Dear All,

The days are passing quickly and life at the center continues to be fun and busy. They love the fresh bread days and cookouts and are so appreciative of all the fun snacks you have provided for them.


This is Angela and I up in the tower the day we went out to take Teddy Bears to the Iraqi children.

Me with Iraqi Girl.

For me it is still all about the troops and connecting with them. I stand amazed at the continued little divine appointments God brings my way with our troops. As I listen to their broken hearts, about their new babies and their hopes and dreams for the future I am challenged to not grow weary as I move towards my departure.

I am probably the only person in Iraq who has spent the summer cold. I am in side 90 percent of the time and I will say the air conditioning works well here. For me going out into the sun feels so good though I can see where if I had to be out in it and in all the gear our troops wear I would be whining all the way. The past three days it has been overcast and we even had rain, not just rain, thunder and lightening. The thunder was so strong and constant that when I woke up I wondered if we were under attack. It was a pleasant surprise to have rain and certainly not expected at this time of the year. It cooled the temperature down which made it very nice. It was so odd the first overcast day with all the humidity; I almost thought I was in Texas. It normally does not get below 100 before the wee hours of the morning, but tonight at 10 pm it is already down to 94 degrees. Nice!!!!

The United Through Reading still remains to be the highlight of my days. It has made such a difference for our troops and I love to hear how meaningful it is to them and their families. One dad told me his two year old daughter did not know him after his first deployment and they had a hard time adjusting when he got home. She is now six and loves the DVD’s of her dad reading to her and to the two old brother during dad’s second deployment. Dad is encouraged that his two year old son will not have the adjustment that his daughter had the first time around. At the beginning of the summer I was so well stocked on books and was bewildered yesterday when I went in the UTR room and realized that I was getting low again.

I love you all and will see you soon,
In His Mighty Grip,
Linda