My oldest daughter

This is my oldest daughter with her daddy in his helicopter.  The year is 1991, the location Ft. Polk, LA. 

I post this picture here because this pic is very special to both of them.  Since her dad has left, Kendra has posted this pic, along with one of her daddy in our living room, on her bulletin board.  She frames both pictures with her rosary.  This is a special rosary that she picked up at Notre Dame in Paris during our visit there last fall.

She is an incredible child.  Smart, emotional, creative. I remember when she was five years old, we took her and her siblings to Gettysburg.  This was Paul's trip, he had been wanting to visit the battlefield and see the museum.  So one weekend, we packed up the kids and drove north (we lived in VA at the time).  What I will always remember about that trip is Kendra's reaction as the reality of that war began to sink in.  There was one room set up with little lights on a light board to represent the killed in action over the course of the battle.  At the end, the little lights that were on practically lit up the whole room.  Kendra asked about the lights and I explained what they represented.

We moved on, and in another area of the museum, there was a diorama set up of how the tents and such were set up.  The men were shown, around campfires and such, when they were not on the battlefield.  Suddenly, Kendra just sat down and put her hands over her face.  When I asked her what was wrong, she said "All those men, mommy, dying. Such a lot of men to lose."  I was taken aback at her sudden comprehension of all that was lost in that battle.

I wonder now, what she thinks about her daddy and the job he is doing. I know she is proud of him. She wears a special bracelet that our PTSA created to support the troops we currently have deployed.  She says she will not take it off until daddy returns. She is very much a "daddy's girl" and they are so similar in thought and view points, I sometimes think she misses him more than the other two, who have always been more connected to mom.

Each morning as I straighten up her room, I see her little "shrine" for her dad and I pause and I say a prayer.  I pray for his safety, I pray for the ones fallen, I pray for the countries involved... and I pray for my children, that even though I can't shield them from what their daddy does... that God give them understanding and faith and hope.  I pray that they continue to realize daddy does all this because he believes in his country, in the constitution and that he believes what he does matters.