Day 86: Fightforthetroops.com

Posted by: Cris

So after spending the day replacing the glass on a sliding patio door (don't ask - but thankfully Reuse Hawaii had a replacement that I got for only $30 - if you live in Hawaii, go check this place out - a non-profit org. doing a good thing), we headed out to shopping-play for awhile to night to let the girls spend some energy.

The moral of the story is: "Don't start playing actively with your children at one of these play places unless you want every kid to come over and start wanting to climb on you, tackle you and jump off the play structures and have you catch them. This little 3 year old boy hanging on my legs (Leon) was there with his older sister that I first thought was his mom (who I had to continually reassure that it was totally okay that he was all over me as it was obvious she was a bit embarrassed). When we went to leave, he came over and wanted to say goodbye and of course Nova gave him a big hug. But then, he hung on my leg and wouldn't let me leave until I knelt down and let him give me a kiss on the cheek.

Leon's sister is the girl in the background with the long black hair - keeping an eye on him so he doesn't keep running over and tackling me...he was a blast.

Juneau practicing her stemming...

For those who are concerned about how Emilie is doing, let me just cut and paste this statement of hers from our last Skype conversation during which she was summarizing how she spent that morning on her day off:

"i slept in late. then i got up, took a shower, and got a $20 one hour massage. pretty good day so far :) "

War Zone huh?

I'm kidding of course. I'm actually thrilled that there are opportunities for her and others to be spoiled and do things that make the time there feel like their lives back home.

Many of you know that I am one to never miss a night of MMA fights. Tonight, I have been sitting here watching the UFC's second Fight for the Troops; A night of fights put on in a huge hangar at Fort Hood, TX. Besides providing a night of entertainment for our soldiers as a way of saying "thank you", the UFC uses these events to raise money for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and its attempts to advance the treatment and care of traumatic brain injury in our soldiers. Between fights they have been chronicalling individual stories of our heroes who have come home with this injury. Probably based on our family's current connection to these type of soldiers, I have been particularly touched by all of these profiles and I don't think there has been a single story that hasn't resulted in me being teary-eyed by the end as they talked to the soldiers and their families whose lives have been forever changed by TBI.

Please consider visiting Fightforthetroops.com and making a donation of any size.