Days like these...

I just got an email from my Mom telling me to hit her back. First off my Mom's emails are usually more flowing and she never uses slang like 'hit me back' so I knew something was wrong. I can call to the states everyday if I want to but I try not to becasue I don't want to get on a schedule. But, something told me something was wrong so I need to call home. So I called my Mom and braced for the worse, I could hear the relief in her voice when she picked up the phone. She asked me if I was ok and I said yes. She said my Dad heard there was a helicopter crash all he saw was helicopter, crash, dead, civilians and he thought of me. What he missed was Afghanistan. After I got off the phone with my Mom I called my Dad and I could hear his relief we chatted for a while and then he had a customer come in and he had to go.

Often times out here I forget that I have a life back in the "World" and that people that are still terribly worried about my safety and just the mention of harm sent them into a panic. I'm sure their stress was shared by about another 200,000 parents all across the US. That exchange was just so poignant to me, I was so worried about them and while the phone calls help there is nothing like physical contact to let you know everything is ok. My Dad's worry is just under the surface like that I suspect that's how it is for families back in the "World". Iraq is much more dangerous in the news, that's not to say it's not a dangerous place and that I don't have a dangerous job but, for me it's not as dangerous as the news at home makes it out to be. Even at that it's days like these that I wish I wasn't here so they didn't have to worry like that.

But, they are parents they are going to worry wherever I am. That's what parents do.