4 letters from our Sailor

It's been 3 LONG weeks since we've said good-bye to Patrick. I had 1, 20 second phone call and that was it! Until last Thursday! i went to get the mail and when I opened the box, I literally squealed out loud! 4 letters were in there from our boy! I had the first one open before I got inside!!!! The first letter was written on his way from Memphis to Great Lakes. In it, he was saying how much he loved us and good-bye. One thing he wrote in that letter that was so special was:

"It was so hard to tell you by yesterday b/c yall have been my shoulder to cry on and my rock! I love yall so very much, and just know that I will make you proud! I am a tough, strong minded man and I will be fine, and I am praying daily! These next 2 months will be hard and I am so happy that I have 2 paretns that love and pray for me like you and Dad do!" ....

and, in the next 3  here are some highlights:

"I miss yall so much and Mom, I'm so sorry I couldn't talk long the other day, I so wanted to but I had my RDC yelling at me to hurry! It's not as bad as you might think it would be. I am waking up early everyday with no problem Tell Dad that I am reading my Bible, and am going to church. If there were eer a time to be close to God, now is that time!"......

"MOM, well I have some good news! I made EOP for the Divison! EOP is Educational Petty Officer!!! I beat out like 5 others for it. Other good news, Chief actually likes me and I haven't lost my temper once! I just sit back and do what I am supposed to be doing and pay attention to detail! The food is o.k., all healthy.......I got my glasses. They are horrible. But, tons of people have to wear them!"

"I have no regrets for joining the Navy, the reason I don't is because it is gonna make me a baetter person and a better Christian. I have been reading my Bible more and praying a lot more! I don't know, I always hadve tried to quit certain things and changing so much in my life and joining the Navy has already helped me. I miss yall but yall aer ALWAYS in my thoughts and prayers! I just wish I could talk to everyone! But it is GREAT getting LETTERS. There is only about 15 of us that have even gotten mail. But it is still early and not everyone's family is like mine...."

I am so happy and feel so much better about our sweet PatPat. It's still hard, but things are better. I will miss him so much next week at the beach. He always enjoyed fishing on the lake there at SandDestin and I'll be thinking about that when I look out at sunset each night in the backyard!

O.K., kids! You've told me that I have spent ENOUGH  Journal SPACE on PATPAT! hAHAHAHAHA! (they are teasing me ENDLESSLY about how much JOURNAL space is devoted to PATRICK!)!  Hey kids>>>>>READ IT AND WEEP! (Pat is the favorite right now! HAHAHA!  OMG, I'm going to catch it for that! I'M KIDDING!). OH MY GOSH, I can only imagine what all the kids are going to say after reading this!.......(BTW, I'm only allowed ONE comment per day about the NAVY/NAVY MOMS or PATRICK (by Katie)! hAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Katie, take this!

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_1