October 28, 2004

October 28, 2004
We haven't heard anything from Adam and don't expect to. Please be in prayer for all of our troops. We are still sending more young men and women over to Iraq.
If you are planning to send anything to Iraq for Christmas, be thinking of sending it early in November. The mail is expected to be slow around Christmas. If you can send cards and a personal note of encouragement, I know that Adam would appreciate it very much. He loves to here from people at home. We don't know when he will be able to get mail again, but it would be great if he had some to greet him when he returns to base.
The Marine Corps website has an article about Charlie Company and some of the support work that they have been doing to help make life easier for their fellow Marines . Click on Marine article to be taken to the news about C Company posted on www.usmc.mil.
I am copying part of a letter from Chaplain Benson's address for the month of November. It puts into perspective our freedom and makes me so thankful for what each soldier and Marine is doing to protect my freedom.

The CSSB7 battalion continues to work hard and increase the effectiveness of what we do. The Marines are doing a great job, and doing it with a smile. I have seen lots of care packages delivered to Marines and the smiles that come with that. Contact with loved ones at home makes such a difference for morale here! Please continue loving, supporting and encouraging your loved ones here in Iraq. Your support makes a difference.

In looking ahead at November, it will be an eventful month: The elections in the U.S., the Islamic celebration of Ramadan here in Iraq, and Thanksgiving. Speaking of Thanksgiving, my family has a Thanksgiving tradition I’d like to share. At some point in the big meal when everyone has gathered, we go around the table and everyone shares something that he or she is thankful for. Sometimes it is light hearted and sometimes the expressions of thanks are shared with tears of gratitude. I would like to share with you a few things that I am thankful for. I am thankful for the “small” comforts of life we often take for granted: running water, a piece of fresh fruit, a mattress to sleep on. I am also thankful for modern communication: email and phones that let me stay in touch with my family so I can listen to my two year old learning to talk and the sound of my wife’s voice. I am thankful to be an American, to live in a country where we don’t discover mass graves, have to be afraid of loved ones being abducted in the middle of the night by state police, or being arrested for speaking our minds. And as hard as it sometimes is, I am thankful to be here in Iraq with the Marines of CSSB7 helping to make Iraq a country that enjoys the same freedoms we do in America.

Please pray specifically for
1. Protection for each one of our troops. All are in harm's way.
2. Chaplain Benson as he ministers to our troops at Camp Al Asad
3. Pray for each one during the holiday season when it is very hard to be away from home.

Thank you so much for your faithfulness to our family. We appreciate all of you.
In Christ's love and protection,
Jill