Our Soldier Is Finally Home!

Steve made it back to Texas safe and sound... They got back on Thursday afternoon. I haven't heard much from Steve so I'm not sure what he is up to. I know they were traveling for 4 days so I'm sure he's catching up on sleep! Steve will be coming to Arizona soon to spend a month at home and then he is back to Texas for a couple of months. His time in the Army is almost up and everyone is excited to have him home for good!

The LAST holiday without Steve!

The Holgate family did Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday... It was a lot of fun to spend time up north with everyone. Everyone was sad that they had to spend another holiday without Steve. Logan misses his daddy so much and can't wait for him to be home for good... This should be the last holiday that Steve has to miss! He will be out of Iraq in a matter of days and back to the States for good!

Logan sat down in front of a shelf that had pictures of him and Steve displayed on it and he just stared at the pictures. It amazes me that he recognizes his daddy in every picture and points him out and gives him a kiss.

Only a few more weeks until Logan can kiss daddy for real!

Chad & Steve Meet Up!

How is it to have a brother and brother-in-law in Iraq at the same time? Eery, stressful, ironic and crazy! Chad and Steve met up with each other to hang out a couple of days ago. All-in-all, it seems like they had a good time! To be quite honest, I cried when I saw the pictures of them together over there. I can't help but stress (it's my nature) about having both of them in harm's way at the same time. I know Steve is leaving very soon and the excitement is rising. Chad however, still has quite a while before this ride is over.

I may not know Steve very well, but I can't help but feel like I somewhat know him. I look at Logan and see a younger replica of Steve. He is a spitting image of his dad. Logan knows who his daddy is too. When he sees pictures of him, he just smiles and says, "dad". I hope that Steve knows that my family truly cares about his safety and wants for him to return home to his son.

Please keep these two in mind, especially when you're having a hard day. Remember that life is great and with out men like these, we wouldn't have all the things we take for granted.

Early Christmas Present

Steve will be home in time for Christmas! Yes you heard right, Steve will be finished with Iraq soon. Logan is so excited! Although he will have to return to Texas for a short time thereafter, he will be home to Az quite soon.

You can tell he's excited too! Apparently he has already tried contacting Chad to see if he'd like to take his tv, power converter and xbox (playstation, nintendo, whatever!) off his hands.

Tonight, while Bradon, Jace and I were at Wal-Mart, we ran into a soldier dressed in uniform. Bradon said, "He's like my Uncle Chad and Uncle Steve". It's hilarious how he associates camo with his uncles. It suddenly made me sad though. I am still having a hard time with the thought of loved ones in the middle of chaos. I know they are smart and will return home safely.

Please Sign Petition for Our Service Men & Women

www.chooseorlose.com

I was talking to Steve this morning and he asked me to go to www.chooseorlose.com. I got on the computer and went to that website and saw a petition. The petition is as follows:

Bill of Rights for American Veterans (BRAVE)


By signing this petition I agree that we need to:

1. Properly treat mental health issues
2. Prevent homelessness among veterans
3. Give disabled vets the benefits they've earned
4. Fully fund our veterans' hospitals
5. Compensate troops made to serve longer

Veterans' groups across the country have worked together with MTV to identify top issues impacting young veterans. To mobilize support, MTV is working with these organizations to consolidate these top issues and create BRAVE, The Bill of Rights for America's Veterans. MTV and these Veterans organizations are asking Americans to sign this petition supporting BRAVE to demand our elected officials make BRAVE a reality. Our troops have fought for us, now it's our turn to fight for them!

We need our Elected Officials to:

1. Properly treat mental health issues

Every troop gets face-to-face screening from a mental health professional prior to deployment and within the first six (6) months of returning home from war.

REASON: Right now a tremendous number of soldiers are returning from the war with mental health issues and brain injuries. The current methods for evaluating and treating such injuries are ineffective and have left countless veterans undiagnosed or without proper treatment. While screening methods have improved since the war began, mandating evaluations, having enough mental health professionals to provide in-person evaluations, and working to eliminate the stigma associated with receiving mental health assistance while in the military is needed and still hasn't happened.

2. Prevent homelessness among veterans

Prevent young veterans and their families from falling into homelessness by creating 20,000 more permanent supportive housing units for very low-income veterans by December 31, 2009.

REASON: Right now on any given night there are 150,000-200,000 American veterans who are homeless. Men and women who have served our country are coming home and being forced to sleep on the streets in many cases due to mental and financial problems that often times are a result of their service to our country. Permanent supportive housing units offer young veterans and their families not only a home, but a support structure to help them get the help they need finding food, clothing, job training, jobs, legal aid, and health services.

3. Give disabled vets the benefits they've earned

The number of troops with physical, psychological, and neurological wounds waiting for their benefits should be cut in half by December 31, 2009.

REASON: Right now soldiers are coming home from the war with injuries that leave them disabled and in many cases unable to function as they did before the war. They are entitled to disability compensation to help them get on and stay on their feet. Currently the wait for such compensation is 6-8 months and puts an unnecessary burden on our injured veterans which often leads to additional problems like debt, mental health issues, homelessness, marital crisis, and suicide. To date, it is estimated that there 600,000 to 800,000 claims from our veterans that are still waiting to be processed by Veterans Affairs

4. Fully fund our veterans' hospitals

Veterans' hospitals should be fully funded for the 2010 fiscal year by September 20, 2009.

REASON: Right now Veterans hospitals, whose job it is to take care of our wounded warriors, are underfunded or not funded in time so they are unable to provide the proper personnel or services needed to treat our veterans. Taking care of our injured veterans is a cost of war and the facilities to do so need to be funded. Veterans' organizations all agree that funding for veterans hospitals needs to be sufficient, timely and predictable in order for the hospitals to be able to provide our veterans with the services they need and deserve.

5. Compensate troops made to serve longer

Troops on Stop Loss orders should receive an additional $1,500 / month in pay.

REASON: Right now soldiers who should be veterans and have fulfilled their term of service to our country are being made to serve extended tours. Despite the fact they are being told to serve longer than they agreed to, they are not given any compensation for this extended service which takes its toll on soldiers and their family's mental, physical, and financial stability. $1,500 is a number that was determined by veterans' organizations as a fair increase given the service being asked of these soldiers and similar compensation that is given to emergency responders at home during their time of extended service during a crisis.


Please go to www.chooseorlose.com to sign the petition. It only takes a second and it could make a huge impact on thousands of veterans.

Chad's Deployment

Bradon, Logan & Josh

Chad & Bradon

Chad

The Family

The Tanks



You know how you begin to think the grass is always greener on the other side? Well, I'm sure that is how the boys (Marines) felt about living in Twentynine Palms. If you haven't been there, you aren't missing much. Ironically, he sent an e-mail to his girlfriend last night stating he feels as if he never left 29, because it's very similar there, on the other side of the world in Kuwait.

This past weekend, family and friends gathered to spend time with Chad as he readied to leave for Iraq. It was difficult for everyone to see Chad and his friends go. I know for most of us, the past few days have been spent with tears and Kleenex!

Abby (Chad's girlfriend) received an e-mail from Chad about 11:30 last night. He said that he is currently in Kuwait awaiting a flight out to Al Asad. In the meantime, they are doing "lots of loading and unloading of planes". We'll wait to see what we hear from him next.

On the other hand, we are still missing Steve, but he is almost done with his 2nd tour of duty. He will be coming home to see his little boy, family and friends soon! Please keep the both of them in your thoughts.

Steve's Ticker

Wow! I just looked at the ticker at the bottom of the blog and realized how long Steve's been away for. It has been over a year now! Time has really gone by quickly-at least for me. The end of Iraq is in sight for him and he can't wait. I am so excited to see what he thinks of his little Logan when he returns. When he left, Logan was a little guy and now he is nearing his second birthday. We are all getting excited as Steve will return home safely very soon!