Chase, ICE and Politics in America

I think a huge reason why I haven't been blogging recently, is that my blog has meant different things to me over the years, but I have no idea what it means to me right now.  When Eli was young and we were going through the hell that was military medical care, my blog was my way to record our experience and the impact it had on our family. I suppose I never believed that we would have made it to this end of things. I never would have thought it would be possible to be here honestly. So I suppose that life these days seems so slow and monotonous, but perhaps because it is so mundane I have even more reason to write... to prove that it can be done... you can take on the military and win. You can face child mental health problems and survive it. The fact that Eli is just a normal, healthy, 22 year old guy who only now struggles with the normal 22 year old guy things... work, dating, family, friends...all of that. It's just the gloriously normal stuff that if you had asked me about 10 years ago, I never would have believed we would be where we are; we are so blessed, and I am so thankful. 

So since we have closed the door on those issues, we can focus on what is happening politically in this country. We are not in a good place. The headlines out of Minneapolis read, "Hell on Earth," and that actually is the long and short of it for the entire country right now. I never thought we would be living through anything like this. It has people taking sides and cutting off family members and friends.  In 2016 I had a friend in Cincinnati that I met on a pregnancy and parenting board in 2002, and when we were stationed at Wright-Patt in Dayton, we were able to meet in person. We became really good friends...or so I thought.  One day I happened to be on Facebook, and I had a "friend suggestion" pop up, and it was Alli's page.  I though that was strange, because we were friends. I clicked on her name and it did indeed show that we weren't friends. I thought it had to be a glitch, so I sent her a message, and she wrote me back a short note that basically said, "I know you will vote for Trump, so I need to separate from you because we don't share the same values." Or something close to that. The kicker is that I have never voted for Trump, and I cannot stand the man.  I am honestly floored that people are choosing to act without talking to the person first... especially when it comes to people you are supposed to be friends with. To be honest I still miss her friendship, but that ship has sailed, blew up, and sank. 

Today is  my sweet baby Chase's birthday.  He is 19. NINETEEN! My mom got married at 19!! I will end the blog today with some pictures of the day he was born.  He was such a preemie... the newborn clothes were way too big, so we shopped for him at Build-A-Bear! I miss the days that I could carry and snuggle both kiddos 😭. Alright alright. Adios for now.