I still have no information about the deployed soldier that I have "adopted". Wait, one update did come through the "Solders' Angels" website; I am now informed of his estimated mailstop date. This is the date that I should stop sending letters/packages based on the estimated time of his return home. He still has quite a while left of deployment. At a minimum, I will be sending 24 more letters, and at least 6 more packages. I've read that the mailstop date is kind of a loose estimate; often troops don't even know when exactly they will be coming home till they are actually leaving. I'm guessing this increases the safety of all parties involved in the transportation effort, etc. Makes sense.
As said before, if you would like to do anything to help support our deployed troops and their families, please visit the Soldiers' Angels site link I have posted on the right of this blog. There are multiple ways to offer support, from longer-term efforts to short-term projects. If you would like to contribute to care packages that I am sending, that is very welcome too. Just let me know what you'd like to do.
All my love goes to the men and women serving our country, protecting our freedoms, protecting the freedoms and safety of other nations, and to all who may read this.
God bless, and have a fantastic New Year.
 |
| Taking a 2nd break from hand-written letters. |
HERE IS A COPY OF THE LETTER SENT
(I just copy/pasted into the blog this time rather than scanning and/or turning it into a JPEG)
Tuesday December 27, 2011
Dear __________,
Well, 2011 is coming to a close. By the time you get this it will probably be 2012 already. I really hope all the letters and boxes are getting to you successfully. I haven't heard anything from you thus far, so I'm assuming you are staying busy. Being busy is better than being bored, I can totally attest to that.
Our weather here has settled down considerably. After 3 weekends and a few week days of rain, wind, and lots of melting, we got TONS of snow right before Christmas. It has continued to snow off and on, including today. We're up to 61.4 inches total since our first snowfall of the season on October 30th. I don't think that sounds like much, but apparently it is enough to keep us at the top of the list for the snowiest city (with 100,000 people or more) in the USA at the moment. It is really beautiful out, and I'm so glad that our trees are covered in snow again and everything is back to looking like it's dusted in powdered sugar.
I've been experimenting with Pyrography (wood burning) this month for art projects. Everyone in my family got customized wooden frames from me for Christmas; I'm excited to learn more about this craft and really like how it makes my house smell; like a wood stove has been on for a while.
Thursday December 29, 2011
Oh boy, have there been some crazy stupid adventures on this end over the last few days! Monday evening my car stopped working. The engine kept turning over, but it wouldn't start. It has been sitting in the garage dead since then as I have poked around here and there for options to fix it... until last night. My father was kind enough to pick me up from work and drop me off at my home. Before he left, he wanted to listen to the car. After hearing “try this”, “try that”, “try this again” a few times, my car started! Everything he had me try I had already tried previously; I think there is something powerful about a father's influence. We determined that there is a slow constant leak somewhere near the engine, but it isn't oil. I took a quick maiden voyage to the grocery store with a friend who is staying with me to a) get groceries, b) make sure the car would start again so I could drive it today to a shop, and c) assert my stubborn independence (I really can't stand being reliant on other people). All went well! This morning as I left for work, I made an unfortunate discovery... the key to the garage man door was not in my coat pocket. With a car that finally starts, and a plan to bring it t the shop this afternoon, it is officially locked in the garage (it is free-standing, not attached to the condo). Even more crazy, when I went outside to see if by miracle a neighbor had left the 2nd man door unlocked (the garage is shared with 3 other people), I heard my car running inside! Ahhh! In Alaska it gets cold enough that engines freeze in the winter so we have engine block heaters that we plug in at night. My car doesn't have one because I have an auto-start that is temperature-sensitive that starts my car periodically when it is 10 or 15 degrees or lower to ensure nothing freezes. This nice feature doesn't get used often when I park in the heated garage. However, I have a neighbor who likes to turn the heat in the garage off.... which explains my car running this morning.
All that being said, I'm home from work today. By the time my boss returned my call, I was happy to cash in leave-time and stay home; there is always something to get done around the house. When my roommate comes home from work, I will (thankfully) be able to retrieve my keys from the garage. Until then, I posted signs on both garage man-doors:
“Dear Neighbor, I (oops!) locked myself out of the garage. If you have access before 5pm when my roommate comes home, please come ring my doorbell. Thank you!!! Joanna @ 2821 #3D”
The adventures, though sometimes pretty stupid, never cease.
Sunday January 1, 2012
Happy New Year!!!
Sorry this letter hasn’t been sent yet; I’m learning that writing a letter each week is somewhat of a challenge at times. You’re probably sick of hearing about the weather over here, but I thought I’d let you know that things are back to normal. Nothing more than some light snow here and there for the last week or so, and our negative temperatures are staring to settle in. Our temperature here on the East side of Anchorage varied between negative 7 and negative 11 today; this is pretty mild for Alaska, we’re really blessed. Fairbanks (Alaska’s 2nd largest city, 7 hours North of Anchorage) sat around negative 30 today. Brrrrrrr….. so so so so SO very glad I chose not to go to college there. Back in 2003 I came home from BYU in Utah for Christmas and met up with some old classmates who were home from the university in Fairbanks. They told me that during the week of finals, the power to the university went out. The emergency generators in the dorms (and most of the students live in the dorms) only lit and heated the hallways. Most students slept in the semi-warmth of the hallways, studied in the dim lights of the hallways, and everyone was woken up at 7am each morning by staff with wind-up clocks to make sure nobody missed their final exams. As much as I know that we are all capable of handling most any situation thrown our way, I am so glad I did not have to endure that.
Christmas was nice this year; I spent it with my family. A friend of mine is a long-term house guest due to some family issues, and I have had the pleasure of “adopting” her for Thanksgiving and Christmas (I am notorious for bringing what my family has deemed “strays” to family stuff). My favorite part of Christmas day was watching her face light up each time my adopted (in the real/legal sense of the word) cousin was being extra adorable. She, my cousin, has Down’s syndrome and was especially enamored with the shiny wrapping paper I wrapped her gift in. When she finally got it open (with her mother’s help), she held it so carefully with a big grin on her face as if it were a precious baby doll. It was a chalkboard. Even better, while her mother was showing her how to draw on it with chalk, she giggled infectiously each time the chalk made a mark on the board! It was absolutely priceless. I kick myself with regret that with all the modern technology that was probably at my grandmother’s house that day, I did not get the whole scene on film.
When we were leaving my grandmother’s house to go home, a friend of my grandmother asked my friend, another cousin, and me if any of us could use a parka. Though my cousin and I have our established winter coats, what the woman didn’t know was that my friend was in great need of a good warm winter coat (her was stolen and she had been getting by with a light pea coat). The woman pulled a furry, warm, and beautiful parka out of the coat closet and gave it to my friend; it fit perfectly. She was hoping to find a home for it before returning to her home. It was a Christmas miracle; I was close to tears. It is moments like these, especially the seemingly simple ones, which reassure me that there truly is someone out there looking out for us in our hours of need.
I rang in the New Year at a “black and white” dance close to home with a lot of friends. I am so very grateful it was close to home since in 2005 I was nearly killed by a drunk driver; being on the road on drinking holidays scare the crap out of me. On the night before New Year’s Eve I had the pleasure of attending a good-sized Samoan New Year’s Eve party with my friend who is staying with me. The music was great and there were a lot of fun people there. Though I’m not the hugest fan of large groups of people, I had a good time. Now I’m left with coming up with goals for the New Year. I haven’t done New Year’s resolutions in a long time, but have decided that I should give it a shot this year. Did you do anything special for the holidays where you are? Sorry that the “Christmas box” came a little late; I hope it still cheered everyone up when it arrived. I still laugh thinking of all the bell ornaments in there and how they must have driven the postal workers absolutely nuts from here all the way to you! That was the whole point, just a little harmless fun. A friend of mine, who is also deployed and fortunately has internet access, knew about my “bells-in-a-box” plan and shared it with the guys he works with. They deemed me an evil genius. That is not something I hear often, so it totally made my month.
I’m working on piecing together January’s package to send your way in a week or so. Writing letters and preparing packages to someone I know nothing about has proven a little challenging. Hopefully the things sent are useful and/or entertaining, and the letters and packages find you and your platoon safe and doing well; that is what I pray for. Never before in my life have I ever prayed for the safety of our troops. Please don’t think me a horrible person, I just have never been much of the patriotic sort, nor is my family a “military” family. My father enlisted in the Army when he was young, served locally for his required few years, and was done. He did his service during the Vietnam War, but was very fortunate and was not called to serve in the war itself. My paternal grandfather also served in one of the branches of the military in a similar fashion; basic enlistment and fulfillment of his civic duty, then was done. I think my father’s uncle served the most time in the military of anyone in the family. He was a police officer of some sort, and I’m pretty sure that all started in the military (not sure what branch, but I suspect the Army). That wonderful man had so many adventures in his life, it is hard to keep them all sorted out. Hmmm, I suppose I should add to my New Year’s resolution list, “Increase my family history and genealogy efforts”. I think perhaps because I knew him, Uncle Sam, personally (we were very close) that I forget to pay attention to the details. A lot of his stories were grand and borderline unbelievable (including 1 or 2 instances of dying and waking up in the morgue). If you’ve ever seen the film “Big Fish”, you’ll get an idea of what I’m talking about.
Before I close this letter, I would like to include the words to a hymn that I love dearly. I’m listening to a random selection of music online and it just played. The first feeling I got was, “share this in your letter”. The hymn’s title is “Lead, Kindly Light”, written by John Henry Newman (1801-1890) and composed by John B. Dykes (1823-1876). The hymn was inspired by two passages from the Bible; Psalm 43:3 and Psalm 119: 133-135. I wish you could hear the music itself; it is absolutely beautiful… one of those not-so-starchy hymns that reaches out and gives your heart a little squeeze when you least expect it.
Lead, Kindly Light
Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 97
Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom;
Lead thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead thou me on!
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene—one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor pray’d that thou
Shouldst lead me on.
I loved to choose and see my path; but now,
Lead thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years.
So long thy pow’r hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone.
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!
I understand you are far from home, and I have no idea how you are handling that situation, but I sincerely hope that you are able to enjoy various aspects of your experience each day. There is beauty and promise to be found in even the darkest hours of our existence.
My prayers and the many prayers of family and friends here in Alaska are with you each day.
Your “angel”,
Joanna E. Dickson
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