Polka Dots & Blackhawks

You know that you're on a "different" sort of a 'tour' when over lunch you stop between elementary school concerts and are taken to a Blackhawk helicopter hangar. Due to Derrick's thoughtful consideration, we had this rather surreal photo opportunity unfold for my polka-dotted life's experience. It is a genuine juxtaposition of congruities to be singing with children one minute, then being mobbed with literally hundreds of hugs and mere moments later be touring a facility at least a 180 degrees at the other end of a mind-numbing spectrum.

It was right about this point of my big adventure, that I gave serious consideration to my own 'service-men' in my own world. First, husband Allen served four years in the Navy aboard the USS John F. Kennedy, actually often in the Mediterranian -- during the Vietnam era. Then my first born daughter, Sarah, married Scott, who is active-duty in the Ohio Air guard as a pilot and as I type, he is deployed in Iraq for the lengthiest stay away from his loving wife and children. Then my second daughter, Noelle married Zac the full-time Navy man, permanently stationed in Annapolis. So as it turns out, I have some tangential exposure to things military.

Sitting in a Blackhawn helicopter in polka-dots I am totally & completely humbled at the service of so many, who have given so much. As I type I have 'completed' all four visits to all four military installations and I write thru bleary tears of happy exhaustion and total admiration. I type knowing something personal and now professional of the stresses that wear & tear on the families of our military, those serving our country, those who put their lives in harms way -- that I might have the opportunity to be in polka dots and galavant about singing and dancing in a spotlight of fun, fluff and merriment. The Blackhawk photo op puts a whole lot of perspective on this grand adventure. I thank Bob Hope and the many others in his troupe who have sought to bring a smile when our brothers & sisters have been between a rock and a hard place: quite literally.

So many reflections. So much gratitude. So many emotions.................. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve -- in my own teeny, tiny way. I am grateful to represent and introduce my version of "Red, White and Blue" to our children abroad. I am grateful to be allowed to travel and share my adventure with my sisterhood of survivors. I am grateful for all the work of so many who do all they can to insure a life of civility and opportunity exists for all-- around the globe. I am grateful, I am grateful, I am grateful.