sendCheer – Remember Our Military Families During the Holidays

As an active duty Marine Corps family, we normally enjoy our military lifestyle, but it’s not easy.  Obviously, one of the most difficult things about life as a military family is the separations and deployments.  Celebrating holidays without your loved ones is difficult – especially if you’re many miles away from your extended family.  You’re already feeling like you have to be both spouses to your child.  Most activities center around families during the holidays, and you’re all too aware that there is a family member missing.  You try to keep both yourself and the kiddos busy, so you don’t dwell on things quite as much.  Of course, the added activities can lead to a bit of burn out.  It always helps when you know that your sacrifice means something to others, that you have people who support your spouse and your family.

It is also quite difficult for the deployed family members to be away from family and friends while spending the holidays in the barracks, in a lonely hotel room, or in a foreign country.  It’s during these times that you need little reminders that you have the love and support family, friends, community.  Letters from home, packages from home boost morale.  Knowing that your family is being taken care of at home is also a comfort.

When I heard about the new Cheerios sendCheer campaign, I knew that I wanted to help spread the word as it will help brighten the lives of our military members.  It was such an easy way to help our military families.  All you have to do is purchase a box of specially marked sendCheer Cheerios boxes.  You clip out the pre-addressed postcard, write a little message, add a stamp, and mail it.  The postcard goes directly to the USO who then distributes it to a military family.  For each postcard the USO receives, Cheerios will donate $1 to the USO to help support the military and their families.

While this may seem like a small thing to many, I can’t stress how much these little acts of support mean to our military and their families.  Random acts of kindness go a long way in helping brighten someone’s day.  I can remember several times during one of D’s deployments how much it meant to me when someone thanked me for our service as a military family or asked me to thank my husband for his service.  It meant the world to Munchkin when she’d hear that someone was proud of her Daddy for serving his country.  While it certainly didn’t take away the pain of missing D, it did help encourage us and lift us up.

If you pray, may I recommend praying for the military family who receives your postcard? Those prayers are more precious than gold.

This Thanksgiving, as I sit at our table, I will be thankful for my husband being home with me.  I will be thankful that there are companies like General Mills who are supporting the military.  I will be thankful for all those men and women who have served and continue to serve.  I will say a prayer for those families who have had to say a military goodbye to one they love.  I will pray for our troops and all military families.  These prayers will continue through the Christmas and throughout the year.  Will you join me?