"Freedom Isn't Free"

Blogging Friends.... Thank-you for your sweet words of encouragement on Saturday's post. I truly appreciated them!!

 

"Freedom isn't free.". These very words, ironically, were written to his mother from this local young man, who was killed in an ambush during Operation Freedom's {Iraq} first few days. "Freedom isn't free.". Written like a prophesy so true, he then proved this fact literally. My cousin Teira's first love, Amos, was deployed to Iraq several years ago. He, too, died. She was young, and heartbroken. We never even had the chance to meet Amos, as they met in Hawaii. "Freedom isn't free.". My, was that local hero correct. Let's all remember to never take our nation's precious freedoms for granted. Never. And let's all remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.

 

Arlington

 

Recorded by Trace Adkins

 

I never thought that this is where I'd settle down/I thought I'd die an old man back in my hometown/They gave me this plot of land, me and some other men/For a job well done/There's a big white house sits on a hill just up the road/The man inside he cried the day they brought me home/They folded up a flag and told my mom and dad/We're proud of your son//Chorus: And I'm proud to be on this peaceful piece of property/I'm on sacred ground and I'm in the best of company/I'm thankful for those thankful for the things I've done/I can rest in peace, I'm one of the chosen ones/I made it to Arlington//I remember Daddy brought me here when I was eight/We searched all day to find out where my granddad lay/And when we finally found that cross, he said/"Son this is what it cost to keep us free"/Now here I am a thousand stones away from him/He recognized me on the first day I came in/And it gave me a chill when he clicked his heels/And saluted me//Chorus: And I'm proud to be on this peaceful piece of property/I'm on sacred ground and I'm in the best of company/I'm thankful for those thankful for the things I've done/I can rest in peace, I'm one of the chosen ones/I made it to Arlington//And every time I hear twenty-one guns/I know they brought another hero home to us//Chorus: And I'm proud to be on this peaceful piece of property/I'm on sacred ground and I'm in the best of company/I'm thankful for those thankful for the things I've done/I can rest in peace, I'm one of the chosen ones/I made it to Arlington/We're thankful for those thankful for the things we've done/We can rest in peace, 'cause we are the chosen ones/We made it to Arlington/Yeah dust to dust, don't cry for us/We made it to Arlington

 

Memorial Day is also observed by some who have lost loved ones in general {No pun intended!!}. That being mentioned, may I take a moment to remember every grieving Mom and Dad of babies/children who were born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia {My birth defect} and did not survive. Every so often, I stumble across Blogs or Web sites about a mother's C.D.H. "angel". And my heart breaks. Into a million pieces. It just hits home for me. These babies/children were soldiers all the same, superheroes who lost the battle against C.D.H. . I feel equally akin to them, as I do with survivors.