Away from home...

I have been meaning to write this post for a few weeks now, but every time I started writing the screen became blurred from the tears I can't hold back.This post isn't going to be speech/language related, but if you read until the end you'll see what I have been doing with my TPT store.

I grew up in a place that has a large base for every military branch. Majority of my childhood friends come from military families and upon high school graduation about 80% of my male friends enlisted in the United States military. I have always had someone overseas to send a care package to, but it never crossed my mind that I would be sending packages to my brother. About 2.5 years ago my family was surprised when my brother came home one day and told us he had enlisted in the U.S. Army. In December 2012, my brother got his orders to deploy to Afghanistan at the beginning of 2013. Back in early February the news reported that hot breakfast was no longer going to be served to the troops in Afghanistan. That's when my brothers request for breakfast bars, instant oatmeal, and other instant meals began. He didn't want much more than that in his care packages until a couple of months ago he told me that the store they had on their forward operating base (FOB) had been shut down leaving the soldiers without access to hygiene products, snacks, washing supplies, etc. As a family, we sent out boxes with all the items that my brother needed and wanted. Within weeks, my brother requested more things and I couldn't believe how he had gone through all the boxes we had sent. That's when he told me that two of his closest friends that he deployed with do not receive packages so he shared his items with them. I asked him why his friends had not received packages and his answer made me breakdown (I'm sure it was harder for me to hear due to my pregnancy hormones.) One of the soldiers isn't in contact with his family and the other one joined the Army to help support his mother so money is tight.

My emotions got to me and I knew I couldn't ignore what my brother had said to me. I knew how the care packages made my brother feel when they were delivered to him and I wanted his friends to know that they are appreciated and loved. I came up with an idea and had my brother send me a list of things his friends needed and wanted. I took the earnings from my TPT store and went out to Dollar Tree and Walmart to purchase the items from the list. Later that day, I stumbled upon Any Soldier. This is a website where soldiers post a brief description about themselves and request items that are needed/wanted. I looked at about twenty soldiers and selected one to "adopt." After selecting a soldier, his information was emailed to me and I was in complete shock when I saw the name of his FOB. I believe it was meant to be because he is on the same FOB as my brother!! What makes "Any Soldier" unique is that the care package(s) gets distributed amongst a unit of soldiers. The soldier on the website is in charge of sharing the items that get delivered.

When the time is right, I will post pictures of the soldiers. I'll upload pictures of the items that were bought onto my Facebook page.

I know this is a very long post, but I want to thank everyone who has supported my TPT store these past few months. You have helped make a difference in a soldiers life while deployed by providing them with items that are needed or simply remind them of home :) Please consider checking out Any Soldier!


Thanks for reading,
Bilingual Speech & Language