Greetings to the readers of Missing Mississippi. This entry is mostly for the benefit of those of you who have been following the story of my family since my brother, Aaron, was deployed to Iraq this time last year, and was injured in March. I can't tell you how much we have appreciated the outpouring of love and support we have received from old friends as well as people we have never met through this site. You have been an enormous encouragement to us.
Aaron and Kelly are within a few weeks of completing Aaron's rehabilitation at Walter Reed hospital and returning home to Mississippi, and I think we were all starting to think that this particular part of our family's story would be winding down soon. But it seems we are about to start another chapter of this story. As you know, I have two brothers, Aaron, and his twin brother, Ryan. Ryan is also a Marine Reservist and about a week ago, he told my family that he will be leaving for Iraq in January. We knew that Ryan would be deployed eventually, but had believed that this would not happen for at least another year since he is attached to the Third Batallion, 25th Marines, Aaron's batalion, which just returned from Iraq. But now it seems that Ryan will be deployed as part of a single platoon made up of members of the 3/25 who have not yet been deployed.
Ryan’s deployment will follow much the same timeline as Aaron’s in the sense that he will most likely leave for 29 Palms, California in January and start his seven-month deployment to Iraq in March. We don’t yet know where he will be going.
Please be in prayer for Ryan’s safety, and please also pray for my family. We will need a lot of grace for this.
We will also need the continuing prayers of all of you who have been so faithful to keep up with us this last year. So please keep stopping by to check in on us, and I'll keep you posted. Thanks, we love you all.