I took a trip to Iraq on New's Years Day

So today, I took a much delayed trip to Iraq. It's hard to believe that it has been nine years ago this year that Bo made his journey into a war zone. Today when I was cleaning my office, I came across his DVD's of the photos of his war time in Iraq. We had discussed at length what was in the DVD's and he said that someday he would like to show them to me, but he needed to heal more emotionally before he went back there with me.

Someday never came until today...I took the journey sitting quietly in my office with sweet gentle sounds of inspirational music playing the background a prayer on my heart as I begin to learn hidden secrets of the soldier and leader that D and my son had grown into.

The first DVD brought tears to my eyes and I must tell you if I had not been sitting I probaby would have fallen down. I cried for the people of Iraq and the genecide they suffered at the hands of saddam Hussein. The first DVD was all Iraq news the only words that I could understand was Hitler and American's. I know they were comparing him to Hitler and praising the arrival of the American's. This horrible man and his followers would take innocent people sat them in a grave beside their fellow friends and family members and shoot them for sport. Then to make the families suffer more the placed all the belongings in one large bag so no one knew who was who when the mass graves were discovered.
It was horrific to say the least. Bags after bags of nothing but bones. You don't have to know the language to see the anguish, despair and utter sense of devistation to know entire families were destroyed simply because one man thought he was above everyone else.

Many people don't agree with the Iraq war and what we did or didn't do there, but our son wasn't one of those. He saw first hand the suffering and it changed him. His pictures should be in a book for the world to see, he captured the beauty of Iraq in the citizens faces, the landscape, even in the worst of times, his eyes caught something that was magical at times. The reopening of schools, kids playing soccer in the streets for the first time in years, power plants back in operation

Bo adapted to Iraq, he was a part of team of soldiers who carried out orders from bureaucrats many who haven't served a day in active duty or never in a war zone. They aren't the ones on the first line who shared their food, comforted the children, rebuilt roads, lived in the filth, get shot at, die or come home wounded mentally and physically. They couldn't adapt or survive such extreme circumstances.

My discoveries were priceless, I found that Bo had a picture of Heather, Ian, Jill, Jeremy, Dad and I on the windshield of the Humvee he rode in. My heart sang, we went everywhere he did. We were never out of his sight. No matter where or what he was going thru, he just had to glance and he knew that we were thinking of him just as he was thinking of us. I never knew that. GOD is good. Bo continued to be who he always was in Iraq, he was funny,

He loved kids, liked to blow things up, considered himself a dork and always thought his men deserved the best.

After seeing his pictures I understand why he hated to be in a car in lots of traffic, in a crowd with people touching him and why he absolutely hated flith of any kind.

Bo like many soldiers embraced this country and it's people, he studied and learned about their cultures, their habits and became tolerant of behaviors he didn't understand or particularly like. But one thing that he never questioned was "why?"

There are pictures of extreme wealth and extreme poverty much like in our own country. They have genecide, we have gangs. We have a proud, strong military, they have unrest.

We are proud of the service of our son and those who served with him then and now.

Bo the Screaming Eagle with the 101st Airborne - so proud of the soldier and leader that he was and the fact that even in a war zone, he never lost sight of the person he truly was. GOD gifted me a beautiful album of pictures today into Bo's journey thru Iraq, parts were humbling, parts were frightening, parts were touching, parts were soul-searching, funny, and mindboggling but most of all in every frame, I saw my son alive and well with that goofy grin on his face, even when Momma could still see the pain in his eyes.

Thank you Jesus for taking Bo to Heaven where he can be all the things you need him to be but with no pain or suffering. Thank you for gifting me a day in the life of our son Bo - it was a great journey !