The Day We Hoped Would Never Come

So I haven't blogged anything very important in quite awhile but I have a lot on my mind so I thought I would purge it all here within the safety of the World Wide Web.

I got a phone call from my Momma Faye today. Normally I get one missed call from her and then a few days go by, I call her back and she says,"KENDRA JANE!! I CALLED YOU TWO DAYS AGO!! WHAT IF IT HAD BEEN AN EMERGENCY?!?!?" Today was different. I had three missed calls from her on my phone by the time I had the chance to call her back. She said hello and how are you and blah blah blah and then said she had some news...I asked if it was good or bad and she said bad...

FedEx came to her door today with a letter for my brother Adam from the Marine Corp. She called Adam and they opened it together over the phone and she read it to him. He has been recalled to the Corp to do a 13 month tour in Iraq. We all knew that this day might come. Up until today we have had a couple of scares that he may go over seas but no official letter from the "Commander in Chief". I held it together until we hung up and then I lost it. I have been crying on and off all day since I spoke to her.

I sent my brother a text telling him Momma had called me and I asked him if he was going to be able to come home for a visit (he moved to the South a while ago to pursue a job but left his permanent address at our parents house) or if we all needed to fly to him. He called me a few minutes later. He is being very strong through all of this and is asking us not to freak out yet. He still has to go through his Marine Corp testing to see if he is "capable" to do a tour. He won't actually go overseas until October or so if he passes his physical and other tests. He wants us to just wait and see what happens before we go to see him. I think he is still in shock.

We had a pretty bad scare last year that he might have to go overseas and I gave him my bronze One Year sobriety coin telling him that it was one of my most prized possessions and it kept me alive through my most dangerous and scary year and I wanted him to take it with him so it could keep him safe too. I left the card with the coin in it on the kitchen counter for him to find after I left that day. My Momma tells me he cried when he read it.

A few months after that he called and joked that he had slipped through and wasn't going overseas after all and that he should give it back to me so he didn't lose it. I never got it back and he still has it with him.

It may seem silly to some that a little bronze coin could be so important to a person but in many ways, that coin did save my life and in a weird way it makes me feel better that he will take it with him where ever he ends up.