Our Little Life: The Real American Heroes

This past Friday (11/11/11... wouldn't that be so cool to have that as a birth date!) was the day that our country has set aside to honor our military veterans by having Veterans Day. On Saturday some people from our church, old and young, took a little trip to Johnson City to the VA hospital to let the children sing songs and hand out some hats to the Veterans that are living in the extended care portion of the hospital. A wonderful member of our church is now living there and we thought it would be something that he, and possibly some of the others there, would enjoy. Little did we know that we, those of us that traveled from our little church in Zionville, would be the ones receiving such a huge blessing that day! When we first got there and walked into a large room where they had probably 30-45 Veterans gathered in there playing Bingo, the emotion of gratitude came over me. Every single man and woman in that room at some point in their life has sacrificed so much for our country... for me... and for you. The children then sang several songs, and of course were adorable and precious as always, and then they went around handing out hats that our church had printed up for each veteran living there. After we left there we walked through the hallways to see the remainder of those that were not in the gathering room to allow the children to talk to them and give them a hat. I know that I could never thank each one of them enough for the service that they gave to our country, but to see their faces and smiles when the kids were talking and singing to them gave me hope that they knew that we're grateful for them. After getting home and hearing the next day from one lady whose father is living there, she said that it was the first time she has ever seen some of those people smiling! Another lady that my mother went to school with, her father has just started living there last week. When I got home on Sunday and saw a picture on facebook of her dad with the hat on that the kids gave him, and a huge smile with this written with the picture:

"My friend Dianne Phipps and her little ones from her church visited Daddy and the other residents yesterday at the VA, in honor of Veterans Day..this is the cap he got from them...that he was So proud of and he said the kids "done a real good job singing, you could tell somebody's been working with them."

I couldn't help but smile!

Some of the kids with Glenn, a faithful member of our church that is now living here.

After leaving the VA hospital the kids from church were very excited about a fun trip to Chuck E. Cheese's. It was so fun watching all the kids playing those games (many which they didn't have a clue what they were doing) and having a great time! By the time we got home that night we were all pretty exhausted. I laid in bed that night though and thought about the wonderful and blessed day we had. Blessed to have people that are brave enough and love our country enough to serve in the military. Blessed to be living in a country where we have the means to travel to do special activities such as this. Blessed to have places such as the VA hospital to give medical care. Blessed to have our freedom that we can go in a public place and allow our children to sing songs giving glory and honor to God. Blessed that my children are so lucky to have so many grandparents still alive and that I can look over and see my Papaw Nulan, my children's great papaw, with a huge smile and tears in his eyes while watching them sing. Blessed to be a part of a great church. Blessed to be able to go to fun to places like Chuck E. Cheese's and watch my kids have the time of their lives! Blessed that I and my kids get to watch my Mamaw Ollie, the kids great granny, playing skee ball at Chuck E. Cheese's! :) Blessed that I have my wonderful mother that will go with me and help me out while my great husband stays behind so he can get a full day in of cutting wood and doing some side projects. So many things to be thankful for.

Here are a few pics of the kids having fun at Chuck E. Cheese's!