December 21, 2004

December 21, 2004

We had a great call from Adam this morning. He called Rod at home, then he called me at work, and then he called Ashlee at home. It was just great to hear his voice and communicate for a while. I'll just give you a short list of things he said.

1. He hasn't received many packages, but he said don't send any more food. They have plenty of it. If you want to send anything, please send phone cards. He specifically asked for those. He said they must be AT&T and they have to be 500 minutes or more in order to even get out of the country. He is thankful for everything that anyone has sent to him. He doesn't know when he may get back to base, so he doesn't know when he might get other packages you may have sent. He doesn't have any way to mail anything. He is sorry that he can't acknowledge everything - but wanted to relay his thanks to all of you. He did say that he got his Christmas present from us and that he was waiting to open it until Christmas.

2. He has had a difficult time calling. He waited in line for 2 1/2 hours on Sunday to call. When he finally got to the front of the line, the phones weren't working and he just got a busy signal on every number he called. He burned some phone card minutes and still didn't get to talk to anyone.

3. He is really busy and not getting much sleep. He is on recon working alot at night. He sleeps a few hours here or there. They have been sleeping in schools and houses. He said it is much safer and he feels like he has saved people's lives by helping in Fallujah.

4. He is warm enough and has plenty of warm weather gear. He said he and his sargent were joking that they wanted their CarHart coveralls to work in. Wouldn't that be a sight.

5. He said that he was nominated for meritorious promotion to corporal. This is the second time he has been nominated since he arrived in Iraq. That is quite a honor. He won't know for a while about that. He was nominated because he designed and lead on the projects to build seahuts at Al Asad.

6. The Marine Corp is trying to keep them busy when they have time off. They had a basketball tournament today. The other contest was building Christmas Trees from the available wood. He was on a 2 man team with a sargent in his unit. They decided they were going to have the biggest best tree. Their Christmas Tree ended up being 22 feet tall and 17 feel wide at the base. It is the talk of the camp! As far as he is concerned it was the best tree! He said he has pictures to show us when he gets home. He can't send film home because they are xraying anything that goes out of Iraq now.

7. He sees Iraqi children, but they cannot talk to them or give them anything. He said they are so poor that they would literally kill each other for anything thrown to them. Also, they don't know if they might have a bomb on them or have someone hiding to shoot them when they talk to them. So they just have to tell them to go away. The kids go when they are told too.

8. The elections coming up are concerning to all the Marines and soldiers over there. No one can tell insurgents from the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people will be making pilgrimages during the first few weeks of January and they are all concerned about what will happen when all those people are out on the roads and away from home.

9. He said that he knew the wounded Marine that we welcomed home on Friday. He knew him by Smitty. He wasn't part of C Company, but Adam had met him and worked with him. He knew that he had been injured pretty badly back in October. I was glad that we were able to welcome Smitty back to Central Illinois. We did find out that he is from Macomb.

Please pray right now:
1. For filling of empty hearts during these next few days as Christmas will be here and gone. Pray that the men will be alert and rested and making good decisions.
2. For the Iraqi people who are innocent of this whole thing. That they would be protected and have their basic needs met.
3. Thank God for the communication available to our Marines and soldiers. Pray for phone lines that work, delivery of mail and packages and computers that work.
4. Pray for all the families of those who have given their lives for our freedom.

We are all so thankful for all of you. Please keep praying. I am so thankful he was able to call. It helped us all the feel closer to him and I know that it helped him too.

In Christ's love and protection,
Jill