13 April 2011

The Last Care Package


The box pictured above happens to be a very special one, and it has nothing to do with its contents- it's the very last care package of this deployment! Over the last eleven months, I've made countless trips to the post office to send off packages containing various requests and necessities, as well as letters and gifts. There have been themed boxes for holidays, boxes full of boring things like toiletries, boxes upon boxes of junk food.. you name it, I've sent it. 

Some of Jordan's Requests:
- Chili Cheese Fritos
- Amps
- Peanut Butter
- Crackers
- Tuna and Chicken  (the vacuum sealed packages)
- 5 Hour Energy Shots
- Easy Mac
- Crystal Light On The Go
- Soft Lips chapstick

I can't even recall how many pairs of Skull Candy headphones that man has gone through. They have a warranty, but trying to get the broken ones back from Afghanistan AND tracking down the right receipt became a joke after the second pair. He's gone through two cameras, about a million DVDs and XBOX 360 games (he still sent them home, even though they were scratched to hell and back, bless his soul), and he's on his second laptop. The combination of Jordan and sand has been lethal on too many electronics to count and he's lost/ruined/given away/sold so many items, it's hard to even choose a few to list.
Of all those things, the most important to him arrived back on our doorstep unharmed by sand, Jordan or any other element in Afghanistan, about a month ago. A photo album full of all the pictures I've sent him (of us, of me, of family), a folder full of every letter, note or card he's received since deploying (from me, from friends, from family) and the sweetest, smallest, most sentimental thing I've ever seen: 
The day he left home from his pre-deployment leave, he took one of my hair pins and put it in his pocket. In all the emotion of the day, I hardly noticed. But there it was, in the midst of all of his most treasured items. The tiniest, most personal belonging my soldier carried around for all those months, unharmed. Amazing.