A brief history of this blog:
Missing Mississippi was started in September of 2004 as a way for me to keep in touch with family and friends all over the country, but primarily those in my home state of Mississippi. It served that purpose well, and as anticipated, had a grand total of about four readers, all of whom were directly related to Dan or I. However, the life of the blog took an unexpected turn in March of 2005.
Among my four siblings, I have two sisters, Hannah and Audrey, and twin brothers, Ryan and Aaron, both of whom are United States Marines. In early 2005, Aaron was deployed to Iraq. On March 18, 2005, the military convoy in which Aaron was driving was attacked. Aaron was injured and lost his left leg below the knee as a result of his wounds. In the days that followed the news of Aaron’s injury, my parents were inundated by phone calls from friends and family members who, understandably, wanted to know the latest news about Aaron. For a few days, there wasn’t much to tell, as Aaron was being stabilized in Germany so that he could be flown home to recuperate. It was a time of enormous anxiety and uncertainty, and while I know it was only a few days in reality, it still seems like a small eternity when I think about it.
Out here in Albuquerque, I felt very helpless and isolated. My going to Mississippi wouldn’t have done any good at the time, and neither would my presence at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where Aaron’s wife, Kelly, and my parents were already gathering to be with Aaron when he arrived. But it was difficult to be far away from my family and go about my life as usual during a time of such upheaval. So, desperate for something useful to do, I offered to use the blog as a central place to post information and prayer requests about Aaron so that people could get the updates they wanted.
And that is how, in a matter of days, the blog went from being this weird little project that Dan and I were doing to having Web traffic numbers in the hundreds. Friends and family were checking for information, as expected. But it soon became apparent that through church prayer chains, word of mouth, and links from other blogs, people we had never met and may never meet in this life were keeping up with our story. I could have quit my full time job and done nothing but field emails from people who were reading and praying for us. It was astonishing.
The blog was almost entirely dedicated to posts about Aaron and our family for a period of several months. If you want to read those posts, the best way is to click on the category called "Supporting My Troops"
To say that Aaron made a full recovery would be an understatement. As of this writing, in August of 2007, he’s nearing completion of his undergraduate degree at Mississippi State University and planning to head off to law school next year. If you know Aaron or read about him here, it won’t surprise you to hear that he’s got big plans for the future. As for his leg, it’s not really something he or any of us really give a lot of thought to anymore. I can't speak for everyone else in the family, but for me at least, it's not that I forget Aaron was hurt. It's just that it no longer seems like the thing that will matter the most about his story, or our family's story, years and years from now.
But occasionally, I will go back and read over the things I wrote during that period of time. And while it’s hard to do that because it reminds me of what it felt like to be so afraid and to have so many questions, I always come away marveling again at the incredible grace and mercy our family experienced then. I think that’s why I leave all of it on the Web site – to remind myself, and anyone else who wants to read, that God is good, even in hard things.
These days, the blog is back to what it was originally meant to be: Just a nice place to post photos, tell stories, and let people in on our lives a little. So if you are new here, welcome. And if you’ve been here all along, thanks for coming back.