If any of you think you've got it rough right now in your life, or that good things don't seem to be happening to you right now, I want you to get over it after reading this story. I have SO much to be thankful for. My life is WONDERFUL.
Today David and I had to go to Maxwell AFB to set up our move for the week after next. You know me, I have to talk to everyone I meet and get on a personal level with them and find out all about their spouses, families, past lives, etc. I am ridiculed about this all the time, but I can't help myself. I like to know about people, even strangers, I come in contact with. Everybody has a story, y'know? I was chatting with the Airman helping us while David was filling out paperwork. I was asking pretty general questions, where are you from? where was your last base? etc, etc. He's politely answering all my questions, all the while calling me "m'am", (and that is going to take some getting used too), then he drops this bomb on me: He told me how the last 30 days have been really rough for him. About a month ago, his wife was killed in a car accident. They have a two year old daughter and a now 7 week old son that was 3 weeks old when his wife was killed. Two weeks later, his best friend was killed (he didn't share how, but used the word "killed"). Last week, he said a cousin died, again not specifying the cause, but used the word "died". Of course my first reaction after realizing the horrificness of the last month for him was to cry. And boy did I CRY. I bawled. Right there in front of him at that desk like an idiot. I mean, I CRIED. Like, all the makeup was gone from my face crying. I thought I was going to have to excuse myself to pull it together. His eyes started tearing up, and I thought, "the last thing this man needs is my tears." So somehow I stopped crying. I told him how sorry I was for everything he has had to deal with, and never have any words sounded more inadequate than those. But it was all I could think to do or say. Even David was teary-eyed, and I cried the entire way to the car and most of the way home. He said his mom is taking care of his kids up in Nashville where he is from until he can figure out what to do from here. He will be stationed at Maxwell for four years, so he said he is going house hunting this week. I just think of how bad it sucks for the house-hunting David and I are doing right now, and we're doing it together. I can't imagine doing it alone. Widowed. Looking for a perfect place for a family when you're missing pretty much the most important person in the family. The plan is to bring his kids, and most likely his mom down here as well, at least until he can get settled with his kids.
I have thought about Airman Moss pretty much all day today. I can't stop thinking about him and his situation. The grief he is dealing with right now is something I have never, ever experienced, and hoped to never experience. He said Monday was his first day back to work since his wife's death. I wanted to tell him to go home and that I would work for him, but I know it is probably good for him to get back into a routine; try to move on with some degree of normalcy in his life, if there will ever be such a thing for him ever again.
It really helped put my current "struggles" into mighty perspective. I'm not downplaying anybody's struggles...we all have them and regardless of what they are, if they upset us or frustrate us, then they suck. But I was taught today that somebody else ALWAYS has it worse than you. And I don't know many people that have it worse than Airman Moss right now, and he was at work today. I have a peace now that the craziness of these next weeks with moving and being huge pregnant and finding a place to live, and packing, and sorting, and filling out the gobs of paperwork that go with the Air Force are all just going to work out. We are alive; we are healthy. We have each other. The rest is just details.
Please, if you pray, pray for Airman Moss tonight and any other time you think of him. Pray for him to be able to manage his grief and to be able to go on and provide for his family emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Pray that he will find mighty blessings in the midst of all the tragedy he has dealt with in the last month. And I will pray that he will eventually find another companion to share his life and his children's life with. He was still wearing his wedding band today, which touched me. As I was sobbing on the way home about him, I asked David what he would do if that were to happen to me. I told him that if I were to die like that, that I would want him to remarry so my children would have a mother, though the thought of him being married to anyone else makes my stomach turn, like bad. But kids need a mom, and if for some reason I were to be taken from this earth, I'd want my kids to have someone to love them and raise them the way I would. David told me that he would probably never remarry because he said he'd probably never take his wedding band off if something like that happened, so no one would know he was available. So that just made me cry more. How I hope that that is never a trial in my life I have to deal with, but that's the thing about trials...most of them you just can't pick.
Never have I wanted to share with someone more my knowledge about Heavenly Father's plan for eternal families than I wanted to share it with Airman Moss today. I am going to find a way to share that message with him. I'm not sure how yet, but he has to know, if he doesn't already, that his wife's death was not the end of the family unit, or of their family relationships. This mortal life is a tiny, but very essential, blip on the radar of God's plan for our eternity. And that eternity includes our families. I will find a way to share that with him.
Now, go kiss your husbands, wives, and your babies.
15 hours ago







































