Brand New Angel

I'm really not sure how I came upon Soldiers' Angels, but I'm already so glad I did. I read about their philanthropy and how they can help from thousands of miles away just by showing their love and support to our troops. I've always wanted to help, but I'm not rich and can't send lots of money. I'm not famous, I can't travel and show my face for support. As little a job as I do now, if it affects one person, makes them smile and think of things back home, it will all be worth it.

At first, I joined the Letter Writing Team (LWT). We receive new names each week, as many days as we'd like, and we write to them to send them support and a fresh breath from back home. I signed up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and because of the long weekend I got two names for Sunday to start with. So yesterday, upon receipt of my names, I wrote a letter each to Josh and Juan. It's kind of difficult to write to someone you don't know, not to mention you are completely unaware of their situation over there... and don't want to bore them or annoy them with how many cats I have.

This morning I woke up quite early... about 5am! Took a quick shower and gathered some things together to go on my morning adventure. Originally, I was intending to take some pictures of the sunrise over the beach, but that soon turned into pictures every so often to show a little bit of my journey there and back. Too bad it was raining when I got down there so I missed the technical sunrise waiting for the rain and clouds to go away a bit so that I could take some shots. But I did get some nice ones, wrote some words of encouragement in the sand, took a couple pictures of those and came home. I thought it was a different way to maybe distract their attention for even one minute from what they're doing... and I think that's important.

I signed up for some TLC care to extra soldiers that need that extra mile. So in addition to my two guys, I also wrote to Nathan as well as a unit who just lost a couple of their own. I can't even imagine...

Finally! I signed up to adopt a soldier overseas. More information on him/her when I hear back from SA. Hopefully it won't take long, I'm anxious to send some goodies and write to someone who has the potential to write back. Knowing what they do really humbles and grounds you... I don't even know what I'd do in their situation. In fact, I almost was. I was very close to enlisting or taking advantage of an ROTC scholarship, but now I don't know if I could have done it. These guys and gals are so brave it's amazing.

More when I get more info! Remember.. www.soldiersangels.org Go help out if you can!

<3 Jess