Pen-pals

So this weekend, not much happened... except that one of my military pen pals wrote me an email!  It totally made my day, probably even my weekend.

Some background: I've been a pen-pal to military service members for a few years now... started some time in college and got more involved once I started dating one.  There is this great organization ADOPTAPLATOON.ORG that you can sign up with and they will assign you service members.  There are a bunch of different options of support for deployed members, from being a weekly pen-pal to sending monthly care packages, to supporting individual campaigns, like sending socks and underwear (hey, everyone needs this stuff, especially all those overseas that are protecting our rights!).  I urge you to support if you have the time, which you really don't have to have much of.  I mean, who can't spare 5-10 minutes a week to write a letter, right?  You can do it at lunch, during class, even right before you go to bed at night!  There is an application you have to fill out on the website and email it in. Once you are accepted, you can ask for pen-pals (or whatever is your liking).  Then you send a letter a week, regardless of if you hear back from your service member or not.  Sometimes they don't have the time to write.  Its also usually good to send a blank sheet and envelope so they can write back (resources are limited over there).  At any rate, its an interesting way to get to know someone and it shows the troops that you are standing behind them.

Note: Singles will get matched with someone of their same sex. Married people will get matched with other married people, usually men (there are a lot more of them in the service).  This isn't a dating service! haha

So onward to my story. I had a service woman last year and we exchanged many letters, but I also had a service man and never heard from him the entire time I was writing.  Oh well, I volunteered to write so that is what I did.  Now, I will put an open apology out there to any future, past and present service members I have... I write about my life and the boring things I am doing... I'm sorry if that isn't entertaining! I'm trying my best!

Anyway, I now have 2 new pen-pals because my last 2 returned home.  I wrote them both letters last week because that is when I was assigned the new names.  Well Saturday, I recieved an email from one of them! It made me super happy! He thanked me for my letter and for wishing him a happy birthday, when none of the guys he is stationed with over there knew.  It really warmed my heart! How satisfying is that, knowing that you made someone's day a little brighter? SUPER!  Anyway, luckily we are going to be shooting each other emails for correspondence (which may be how your future service member chooses to keep in touch... hint hint), so I can hear from him weekly or a few times a week instead of once a month or never, like my previous experiences.

Alright I will end this advertisement now! But support our troops!!!!!! If you won't stand behind them, feel free to stand in front of them!