As a child my worst nightmares always centred around my little brother. Something terrible would happen to him and I would be unable to protect or save him. I suppose it’s ironic that he grew up with an intense desire to protect and serve others.
For the past few months he has been serving in Afghanistan – it’s been a stressful time, especially since many more Australian troops have been involved in incidents than normally – and many close to him. We’ve been thinking of and praying for him constantly, and finally, he is home!! And i couldn’t be happier. Today we are on the East coast of Australia to welcome him home – its going to be awesome.
I feel like so much of this year has been defined by moving home and everything that has been going on with Matt.
At the beginning of this year, we had begun thinking about moving back home to Australia. Almost as soon as we told my family this we found out that my brother was about to be deployed to Afghanistan. I hadn’t seen him in 5 years, and the thought of him going to a war zone without even a few moments together, broke me. In all honesty – we couldn’t afford to fly home for a visit and then move home later that year. It was more than we could do. So we made the hard decision to move back with just one months notice, with the chance that we might miss him before he left (as we had no definite dates for when he’d leave, just hints). We weren’t able to tell anyone that this was why we were coming home on such short notice – due to the nature of their deployment – but i think our quick move probably makes more sense now.
In the end, we were blessed, and got to spend a whole week together before he had to leave. I feel like we’ve been holding our breath these last months, and now we breath.
I’m so proud of him for the work he has done, and the man he has become – and so grateful to have him back here – and able to spend Christmas together. And I have such a new respect for military families, that go through long periods of separation, and worry and stress. All because they believe in a cause bigger than themselves. You are amazing, and I am in awe.
