And the Winner IS!!!!

Ok, I have just sat here and ordered all the comments into one nice, neat (HA) hand-written list. Each comment was numbered and then we (my friend Aura and I) used a random number generator to choose who the lucky winner of this giveaway would be. The number was (drum roll please) 25 and that just so happened to be Angel Tinnel.

Congratulations Angel!

I was very excited when I saw who belonged to the number 25, as Angel is a fellow Marine Corps widow, and her story really hit home for me and gave me some insight for some important decisions I am going to need to make in the next few months. Everyone's stories were so great and I enjoyed reading all of them, my heart swelled with pride for our Military over and over again, and to know there are so many proud spouses, friends, family members, and service members willing to share their proudest moments with me and the rest of the interwebs was wonderful. And without further ado, Angel's story:

"The proudest military moment I can remember is when my husband's company
(1/2) came back from their deployment from Iraq in 2007. Even though my husband
would not be getting off of those buses I knew I needed to be there for the
closure. I knew many of the wives and they were all dressed up ready to see
their husbands for the first time in 9 months, and I was standing there,
clutching my husbands dog tags and wedding band, wishing that what had happened
8 weeks previous was some horrible joke and hoping that he would walk up and
grab me too...(my husband was a huge prankster like that)

Well we could
see the boys in formation walking to us and I tried to hold strong, and I did
for what felt like FOREVER, until they were all standing right in front of us,
and I could see all his buddies....and I just broke down, I couldn't hold the
tears in any longer....a few of the boys broke formation and came right to me,
before even seeing their family and friends that were waiting, and they just
held me, tears falling on their cami's from both me and them....I felt so proud
that these boys would come to hug me and tell me stories (one even a pack a of
cigarettes that he owed Jeremy) and such before going to see their own
family.....The Marine Corp is a brotherhood like no other, and I am thankful for
all the big brothers that it has given me...many of those boys check up on
me....and I on them....Semper Fi...

Angel Tinnel
Proud Wife of LCpl
Jeremy Tinnel KIA 01JULY07"

I am going to be periodically posting some more of my favorite stories throughout the blog as there were so many stories that I found that I want to share.

Also, Angel, you are now responsible for sending me a picture of your finished artwork to share with all my fantabulous bloggers.



That's all I have for now, there will be a more substantial post in the very near future but I just HAD to get this out there!

Semper Fi,