Happy Veteran's Day

I realize we're a day late with this, but I still wanted to do it. Elliott was talking about an assembly they had at his school for "St. Vetrick's Day" the other day and he said there were lots of grandfathers there. I asked if they were veterans and he said no - only two of them cause they had their uniforms on. I realized that even though they had talked about Veteran's Day at school that he still didn't understand that there are thousands of plain-clothed veterans that we probably see everyday. So I explained that Grandpa and PaPa were veterans too, and they were pretty intrigued by this. We tried to think of others and of course my Grandpa Hosselton came to mind, but they never got to meet him, so they kept referring to Grandma Hosselton as a veteran - I do consider her a veteran of the war (and all other war wives) since she had to sacrifice so much also.

Anyway, they decided to make cards for Grandpa and PaPa and I decided to dedicate a blog entry to them. I'm lucky enough to have my sister's wonderful wonderful family history scrapbooks here at my house right now (these aren't just pictures of our ancestors, but treasured family stories and memories that she took the time and effort to make sure are written down for us to pass on - thank you Erin!!!). So I have this photo of my Grandpa, Gill Hosselton, around 1942 in the Navy and also of my dad, John Hosselton, around 1967 in the Army. I wish I had a picture of Brian's dad, John Weiler, who was also a military policeman in the Army - I'll update if I get one.

While I was looking through the scrapbooks I found this picture of my Uncle Ronnie (my dad's oldest brother) standing on the steps of my Great Grandparents' (Hosselton) house around 1944 (while my Grandpa was on a ship overseas with the Navy). I don't think I would've noticed this, but Erin pointed it out in her journaling. You can see in the window a flag with 3 stars. Each star represented each of their 3 sons that was serving in the war - Gill, Russ and Junior. Wow. Sometimes we become immune to the everyday scenes on the news about fighting overseas. Our hearts always break for the families that we hear about who lose a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, a sister, a brother. But in my day-to-day life I'm ashamed to say that I rarely think about what's going on over there. But when I saw that flag with the 3 stars hanging in my Great Grandparents' window, I was really struck. Three sons fighting in the war. I want to cry just thinking about the heartache I would experience if my two sons were fighting in a war, so I can't imagine how my Great Grandmother felt thinking about the safety of her three sons everyday.

So to all of you who are Veterans, we say thank you. And to all of you who have family serving right now, thank you. Thank you for your sacrifices for our country and for us and know that we are praying for you.