Soft Sympathy and a Call for Cards

I liked all the white-on-taupe/brown stuff I saw in 1,000 Bags, Tags, and Labels, so I made this soft and simple sympathy card.

The leaves are embossed using white craft ink from SU and white embossing powder on SU sahara sand card stock. Popped up on a white card, the panel rests on a sentiment from a PTI set (can't remember which). It looked plain and a bit unbalanced, so I added the half pearls.

Soft, sincere, and simple. That's a perfect plan for a sympathy card.

A Call for Cards

I commented recently that with the draw-down in troops overseas, I expected to make fewer cards. Well, I was premature, as reader Diane informed me.

Operation Write Home is struggling to meet the need for cards requested from the troops. So I'll send the box of 137 cards I have sitting on my desk to them in the next few days. If you're looking for a source to send your creations, check out OWH's website. I just registered, ordered the free OWH stamp for the backs of cards, and am ready to keep stamping to help them meet the requests of our soldiers, sailors, marines, and air force personnel.

Some of you already know that I was married to the United States Air Force for twenty years. The sacrifices that our armed services personnel make are considerable even in times of peace. War, however, is hell. It's hard for me to write about some of the times we went through, but I'll share one experience that might help some of you understand why it's important to support for our troops.

When George deployed in January 2003, he was flying in the back seat of the B-1 bomber. Our elder son was three and the younger was just five months old. In a lot of ways, I was on auto-pilot at the time, getting Nick to his preschool activities, grocery shopping, changing diapers, etc. I tried to keep things as normal as possible for the boys, with the background music of news channels running all day and night on television. When the air war started in March, I knew George was flying missions and only knew he was safe when he emailed me afterwards.

It was awful, waiting for those emails, wondering.

One afternoon, I was driving the boys home from Nick's gymnastics lesson or the grocery store or some other normal place. From the back seat, I heard Nick's voice pipe up, full of joy and faith and love: "We're going to see daddy when we get home!"

No, honey. No, we're not.

I knew at that moment George was probably flying a mission on the other side of the world, dodging anti-aircraft missiles and flak, and praying to get his bombs on target. (He did. Every time.)

I had to pull off the side of the road and, as quietly as possible, have a complete breakdown with Nick in the back asking, "What's wrong, Mommy?"

We were lucky. Our service member came home safe and whole and without PTSD (even if he was a bit weird for a while, LOL!). Not every family is so blessed.

ANYTHING that helps our military and their families deal with this oh-so-abnormal life is good. Cards are good. The military personnel enjoy having cards to send to their loved ones, and their loved ones LOVE seeing their handwriting, holding something their soldier, sailor, marine, or airman/woman held. The emails were so appreciated, but not all our personnel have access to computers or phones regularly.

If you can send cards, take time to read the card requirements and give our military personnel the benefit of your obsession for making cards.

They really, truly, deep-down, over-the-top appreciate it.

And so do their families.