Today, I talked to my brother, Aaron, on the phone for the last time before he goes to Iraq. I probably won't get to talk to him again for a long, long time, so it was a tough conversation even though I just saw him a week ago and we talked a lot during that trip. I thought that would make it easier. Aaron's group leaves for six weeks of training in California at 4 a.m. Saturday morning. This is a photo of Aaron. The shorter, less muscular person in the lavender scarf is me.

With this entry, I am marking the start of a new category on the blog called "Supporting my troops." A few days after Aaron leaves, my other brother Ryan will leave for Marine Basic Training in Parris Island. I'm planning to post updates here as my family gets letters and phone calls from them. We would all appreciate your prayers.

I just talked to Aaron! For those of you who don't know, Aaron is my Marine baby brother who is in 29 Palms California right now getting ready to go to Iraq. He's got some down time before his unit goes on two-day leave. He's going to Las Vegas, and he gets to see his wife, Kelly, who has flown out there to see him. It's a great unexpected blessing, because they didn't think they'd get to see each other again until he comes back from his seven-month deployment. Once he gets back from leave, his group is on standby to leave for deployment, which means they could leave any time in the next few weeks. Pray.

My family has also gotten two letters from my other Marine baby brother, Ryan, who is in basic training in Parris Island, South Carolina. Ryan does not write the long descriptive letters that Aaron wrote to us from basic training (not so much Ryan's style) but he is doing well. He's been made a squad leader, which is more work for him because if his group doesn't perform well, he pays. But he seems to be doing well. He says hello to everyone and said he is very thankful for all the mail he has received from family and friends. Mail, it seems, is the highlight of a recruit's life in basic training.

That's all for now.

Aaron leaves for Iraq at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning. His unit will be in the air traveling for 25 hours. Please pray for their safety.

"For He will give his angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands lest you strike your foot against a stone." Psalm 91

Family and friends:
For the next little while, this site is going to be almost exclusively dedicated to updates on my brother, Lance Corporal Aaron Rice. For those of you who do not know, Aaron is a Marine Reservist and was serving in Iraq until last Friday, March 18, when he was injured by a roadside bomb as he was driving a Humvee in the Al-Anbar province. Aaron was severely injured in the blast and was flown to Germany, where the lower part of his left leg had to be amputated below the knee. He has other injuries, but they are not as severe, and Aaron’s condition has been consistently stable since the attack. On Sunday, he was flown to Bethesda Maryland, where he will stay until he is healed up enough to go to Walter Reed Memorial Hospital for rehabilitation. If all goes well, this will take at least two months.
Back home in Mississippi, my family has been deluged with phone calls from friends and family members wanting to know how Aaron is doing and what they can do for our family. Mom and Dad are leaving today to travel to Bethesda Naval Hospital to be with Aaron, and his wife Kelly, who flew to Maryland last night. While they are in Maryland, they need to be able to spend as much uninterrupted time with Aaron and Kelly as possible, so we need to take some of the pressure off their phone lines right now. I am going to act as the liason for the family and post updates here as often as there is new information to report. If you have a specific question or a message you would like to send to Mom, Dad, Aaron or Kelly, you may email me at haley@wachdorf.com or click on the “Comment” button on this site, leave a comment, and I will take care of it. For now, the most helpful thing for people to do is to pray for Aaron and spread the word that updates will be posted here.
We also have the following request to make of you: As of now, Ryan, Aaron’s twin brother, does not know about what has happened. Ryan is in the final stages of Marine basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. This week, he has to go through the Crucible, a grueling several-day hike and endurance training exercise that is the last major hurdle of boot camp. The family has decided that it is best to wait until Ryan finishes with the Crucible sometime later this week before we tell him about Aaron. If anyone is in touch with Ryan through mail, as we know many of you have been since he has been in boot camp, please do not say anything to him about Aaron. We will decide what is the best time to tell him, and when he have, we will let you know. Please pray for Ryan.
As of 9 a.m. Monday morning, here is what we know about Aaron’s condition:
Aaron has arrived safely in Bethesda. Kelly also arrived after some major flight complications and has seen Aaron, although he is still sedated as he has been since the attack. She said he looks good. This morning, further surgery is being done on the area where Aaron’s leg was amputated, and if all goes well, he should be allowed to wake up from sedation sometime tonight or early tomorrow. We are thankful that Kelly will be able to be there when he wakes up. Aaron does not know what has happened, so please pray that God will prepare Aaron to hear this news. Pray also that his healing will not be hindered by infections or other complications and that he will experience as little pain as possible.
Please pray for Kelly. She is alone right now in a hospital that is, needless to say, not an uplifting place. Pray that people will treat her kindly in these anxious hours while Aaron is still unconscious, and pray that she will be encouraged in spite of the grim situation.
As I’ve said, Mom and Dad are flying to Maryland tonight. Please pray that their flights will go smoothly and they will arrive on schedule. They very much want to be with Kelly and Aaron soon, and a smooth flight schedule would help immensely.
I will post more when there is more to report. We thank you all so much for your love and support. Please continue to pray with us. God is both sovereign and merciful and he hears us. That is perhaps the most comforting thought we can find in all of this.

I just talked to Daddy, and he said Aaron is awake!
Mom and Daddy got into town around 12:30 last night and went straight to see Aaron, and it sounds like he was able to talk to them a little then. He has been up and talking to Kelly off and on for a while, although he apparently got confused at one point and asked Kelly to tell him who she was. Daddy said the doctors are slowly taking Aaron's dose of pain medication down this morning so that he can stay conscious, and he is responding really well. He is off the respirator that was regulating his breathing while he was sedated and is getting more and more coherent by the minute. He should be moved out of intensive care and into a private room sometime in the near future. Daddy said Aaron is even giving the doctors and nurses a hard time, which is a good sign that he's still the same old Aaron. This morning, a doctor was checking him out for any respiratory problems while Kelly and Daddy were in the room. Aaron, always the life of the party, introduced the doctor to Daddy and told the doctor "This is where I get my good looks."
Aaron told Daddy that he did wake up enough at some point during the process of being transported back to the United States that someone told him about his leg, so it wasn't a complete shock when he woke up, which is good. However, he was under the impression that his leg was gone above the knee, and was very happy to learn that he still has his knee.
Daddy said he and Mom's flight went really well, which is excellent news in comparison with Kelly, who had a very difficult time getting to Maryland. Kelly will have to tell us the whole story sometime soon, but the short version is that Kelly's flight got cancelled and she was stuck in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania until she overheard two of her fellow passengers discussing their plans to rent a car and drive the rest of the way. Kelly asked them if they would let her ride with them, and so she drove to Maryland in the middle of the night with an F.B.I. agent and a Sweet Potato Queen from New Orleans. You can't make this stuff up, and I'm going to have to hear more of that story later, but in the meantime, I hereby award Kelly the Trooper of the Year award. Daddy said she's getting some sleep now after being awake for more than 24 hours, and is in excellent spirits after talking to Aaron. Her luggage, which was lost in the shuffle of the last few days, has also been found. It's a small blessing, but a really nice one for her, I'm sure.
I hope to talk to everyone again later today, and I will update the site as soon as I do that. Thank you all so much for your prayers. We are elated that Aaron is conscious ... somehow it just didn't mean much for the doctors to tell us he was going to be OK until we could talk to him and know that he's alright. Praise God with us for the blessing of Aaron being awake and upbeat. Please continue to let everyone who knows Aaron know about the updates posted here, and, again, if you want to send a message, email me at haley@wachdorf.com and I'll pass it along. We love you all so much.

I have a mailing address for Aaron, since I know you are all itching to get out your stamps and tell him how much you love him. Aaron is still in intensive care and cannot have flowers or large items in his room, so at this time we ask that you please limit yourself to cards and other paper mail. Aside from that stipulation, bring on the mail!

Send it to:
Marine Casualty Services Branch
LCpl Rice, Aaron R
National Naval Medical Center
8901 Wisconsin Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20889

Not much else to report right now. Just pray for rest for Mom and Aaron and Kelly. This is very exhausting. Thank you.

The word from Bethesda is that Aaron was able to get a little sleep last night, which was a relief, and which meant that everyone else was able to sleep also. Here's what we need to pray for today: Aaron has been on a lot of drugs since the attack, and the process of trying to switch him to a drug and dosage that adequately manages his pain without knocking him out has been very difficult. He is somewhat unsure of where he is at times and is hallucinating off and on. This is a little frightening for Kelly and Mom and Dad, but the doctors say that this is very common for soliders who have been through what Aaron has been through and he should be better in a day or two. After a good night's sleep, Dad was sitting with Aaron this morning, and said that Aaron seems to be somewhat calmer today. Pray that God would continue to calm Aaron and help him stay clear about where he is and what is happening. Please pray for Mom and Dad and Kelly, who are constantly trying to find the right way to respond to Aaron depending on if he is in reality or is confused at the moment. It is very tiring for them both physically and emotionally. In Aaron's more lucid moments, he is still joking with people. His most recent escapade was pulling loose a sensor that was attached to his body and then telling his nurse that a colonel who was visiting him at the moment had done it. I'm sure he shouldn't do that, but it's weirdly encouraging to us to know that he's still Aaron in spite of all this.
As far as physical concerns, Aaron is supposed to have another surgery on his leg today. This is nothing uncommon, but it will mean he has to be put under again, so pray for that. Also, the doctors have told Mom and Dad that Aaron has a piece of shrapnel or something in his eye and is going to need surgery on it. They are not going to do it right now because they want to take care of Aaron's major injuries first, but pray that it would not cause too many problems for him and that they would be able to deal with it relatively soon. It is making Aaron see double and that is not helping with his confusion. It also frustrates him because he can't do simple things like read the name tags of the nurses and doctors.
Thank you all so much for lifting us up in prayer. Please continue to do that for us. We need it so much. Thank you also for your many emails to Aaron ... I am printing them out and mailing them to him today. More information as I have it.

Just a quick note: thank you all for your prayers. Aaron is resting comfortably right now after being given a shot of something to help him sleep. Dad said he slept a little last night, but he really has only had a few hours of real sleep since he came out of sedation on Monday evening. He was sedated for three days, but that's not the same thing as restful sleep and with as many time zones as he's been through recently, he is probably having trouble getting on a regular sleep schedule. Hopefully he can wake up well-rested and that will help him get adjusted.
In another interesting note, apparently the Secretary of the Navy came to see Aaron last night and gave him "some sort of medal." I think it's hilarious that we're really not sure what kind of a medal this very high-ranking military official gave Aaron, but this is the kind of thing that gets lost in the shuffle right now. All I know is that it wasn't the Purple Heart, although Aaron will get one of those too at some point. And then we will all have to refer to him as "Aaron Rice, the decorated war veteran." He'll get a kick out of that.
Thanks for all your emails and encouragement and prayers. Keep them coming.

I've just talked to Daddy and Kelly, and there is much good news to report. To start with, Aaron has come safely out of what should be the last surgery on his leg. While he was under, they also took care of patching up a nasty cut he had on his right heel which should heal up just fine. Daddy said that Aaron was able to sleep off and on for most of the afternoon before he was taken to surgery, which is good for him. Dad also talked to the anesthesiologist, who was very encouraging as far as assuring Dad that the hallucinations and confusion Aaron is experiencing are extremely common and that he will snap out of it soon.
Kelly, our conquering hero, called a few minutes ago to talk. She said that today turned out to be the best day they've had since Aaron has been awake. Aaron, she said, is now consistently aware that he is in the United States and no longer thinks he is in Iraq. She also said that Aaron has already got something along the lines of a fan club following amongst the nurses and other Marines in the hospital, and that he has become the comedian of the intensive care unit.
"Today he's a lot better," she said. "There are people lining up waiting to talk to him because he is so funny. I wish I had a video camera, because we could put him on Comedy Central. The Secretary of the Navy came up and he was cracking him up, too. He's always trying to make jokes, and then when people laugh, Aaron does this laugh like he doesn't have energy to laugh all the way, but he wants to. He has his bad times, too, but it's getting a lot better."
Coming soon we'll have the full story of Kelly's midnight hitchiking trip from Philadelphia to Bethesda, which I have interviewed her about. For now, join us in prayer thanking God for Aaron's steady improvement and Kelly's good spirits in the midst of all of this. Please pray that Aaron will be able to sleep some tonight and will not have any trouble coming out of his anesthesia from the operation. Pray that the work that was done today on his leg and foot will be good and that he will heal properly with no complications. It is our hope that Aaron can be moved from ICU to a private room sometime in the next day or two.
Continue to pray that Mom, Dad, and Kelly will find time to rest and eat and take care of themselves in all of this. Also, pray for traveling mercies for Hannah and Audrey, who are scheduled to go to Maryland and see Aaron this weekend over their Easter holiday from school.
That will be all for tonight. Thank you all so much. Mom and Dad are so encouraged to know that you are all so faithfully praying for us. We love you all. More tomorrow.

I'm on my way out the door to work, but I wanted to ask y'all to pray for my Mom because she is having some health issues of her own. A month or so before all of this happened with Aaron, Mom got something that seemed like the flu or some other kind of respiratory ailment. She saw the doctor and they put her on medication, but it never really went away. Just before Aaron got hurt, she was referred to see a specialist about it, but now that's going to have to be postponed a bit. Her general practitioner gave her several prescriptions to help her along while she is in Maryland, but she had a bad, sleepless night last night because she couldn't stop coughing. Please pray that either she will stop coughing or that arrangements can be made for her to see someone at Bethesda who can help her. She so wants to be able to spend time with Aaron and Kelly, and it would take a lot more than a cough to keep her from doing that, but we want her to be able to rest and stay healthy while she's doing it. Mom also said that she wants to thank you all for your love and prayers. She said they can really feel how much they are helping.
I am hoping to talk to Dad and Kelly later this morning. They were with Aaron when I talked to Mom. As a short note, Mom said Kelly told her that Aaron had a lot of pain last night after getting out of surgery and they had to give him something to make him go to sleep again. Pray that today his pain will be less. It must be pretty bad for Aaron to actually comment on it, because from what Kelly told me yesterday, he hadn't complained about the pain a single time prior to that.
More as the day goes on. We love you all.

First of all, I am happy to say that Aaron has been moved out of ICU and into a private room! His slightly-modified mailing address is as follows:

Marine Casualty Services Branch
LCpl Rice Aaron R
National Naval Medical Center
Ward 5-E, Room #12
8901 Wisconsin Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20889

We still ask that you not send any really large packages or any floral arrangements at this time, because the room is very small and it would grow to resemble a florist's shop very quickly. Cards and such are appropriate for now, but if Aaron has any special requests for other items, we will let you know.
Dad just called and said that Aaron is doing really well today and has been very coherent ever since he woke up this morning. He had some pretty bad pain last night, but he's been given some medication to help with that and is feeling better now. Dad had just gotten done talking to him for about 30 minutes straight without Aaron saying anything that would indicate that he was hallucinating or confused. Praise the Lord for that.
Dad said that the family is learning a little more about Aaron's other injuries now that his left leg is taken care of. Aaron's right leg was also hurt, but the damage there consists mostly of injured ligaments and tendons. He may have to have surgery on that leg as well, but for now he has a brace. He also broke his right thumb and that's been bandaged up. Mom and Dad are supposed to talk with an ophthalmologist today about Aaron's left eye, which has either one or several pieces of shrapnel in it. Pray for that meeting to go well and for us to get some definitive answers on that subject.
A good sign that Aaron is improving is that he told Dad he was hungry this morning. He's been on liquids since the attack, but they are going to let him start eating soon. Dad told Aaron that when he comes home, he will grill him the biggest steak he's ever seen. Aaron, who is clearly hungry enough to have started considering what he would like to eat, told him "That's great, Dad. But I want a steak and a lobster." Daddy told him he could have both.
In other news, the ward that Aaron has been moved to is populated exclusively with Marines and he is already making friends. There is a young man from Mississippi State University who got some bones broken in a Humvee accident in the room next door to him, and Aaron has already announced his plans to get over there and visit with him just as soon as they'll let him out of his bed. I hope those nurses are used to chasing Marines around, because as soon as they give Aaron a wheelchair or crutches, they'll never know whose room he's in. He will also get to visit with Hannah and Audrey when they get into town tonight.
That's all for now. Pray for Aaron's lucidity to continue for for his pain to be well-managed. Pray for him to get some sleep, and pray for Hannah and Audrey's safe travel. Thank you all so much.

Family and friends:
Just wanted to check in with y'all one last time tonight. I've just talked to Mom and Dad. Aaron is having a CAT scan right now. The doctors are concerned that Aaron may have some bruising to his lungs because of the impact of the explosion. They have had him on oxygen, but every time they take him off of it, his oxygen levels deplete more rapidly than they should. This is probably a minor issue, but we are thankful that they are making sure of that.
Dad was on his way out the door to pick Hannah and Audrey up in Baltimore when I spoke with him. Aaron is supposed to sleep after they finish with the scan tonight, so Hannah and Audrey will see him in the morning.
Mom said she has been coughing less today, so please just pray that she will have a restful night and get some sleep.
Dad said Aaron has been very coherent today and is improving steadily, which is good to know.
I am going to get some much-needed sleep now as well. Thank you all for your prayers. More tomorrow.

Good morning, everyone! I just talked to Aaron! He sounds so good, just like his normal self. I was only able to talk to him for a few minutes because a nurse came in to talk to him about some problems he's having with swallowing right now, we're not sure why. It probably has something to do with the fact that he spent several days with the ventilator tube down his throat, but we'll see. He said Mom has been telling him about the web site and how so many people have been checking up on him, and he's so pleased to hear that. He also said for me to "Make sure there are some handsome pictures of Ryan on there, Haley, so maybe we can find him a girl" as a result of all the increased traffic on the site. It was so good to hear his voice and hear him joking and laughing in the middle of all of this. He's going to call me back in an hour or so, and I'll write more then. I haven't spoken with Mom or Dad yet today, but I know that Dad went to get the girls from Baltimore last night, so they should be there now.
More later.

After I published this, I decided that in accordance with Aaron's wishes and because I miss my family and I want to look at them, and because some of you may not have met all of us, I would post this favorite photo of mine that we took on the front porch of our house this Christmas. Mom and Dad aren't in it, but it's got almost everyone else. From left are Audrey Rice, Hannah Rice, Aaron Rice, Kelly Rice, Ryan Rice, Haley Rice Wachdorf, and my husband, Dan Wachdorf. In front is Avalanche the American Bulldog. He is quite possibly the stupidest dog on the face of the planet, but we love him anyway.

I talked to Aaron again. He was just getting ready to go to sleep after what sounds like a very eventful day. After the visit from the commandant of the Marines, he had several tests done including having two ophthalmologists take a look at his eye, which we thought had shrapnel in it. There is good news to report there in that they did not find any debris lodged in his eye, only a place where he had some abrasions. Those appear to have healed well and the doctors told him his double vision should go away soon without any surgery. One less surgery is always good news!
I had a chance to visit with Aaron for a half hour or so, and he is in really good spirits. He said today a Marine who was injured in Afghanistan and lost his leg in almost the same place as Aaron came to see him. Aaron said that when the guy walked in the room, he couldn't tell there was anything wrong with him because he walked so naturally. Aaron and this guy talked for a while, and he told Aaron that once he learns to use a prosthesis, he will be able to do anything he wants from playing football to swimming to running a marathon if that interests him. It sounds like it was very encouraging to Aaron. Plus, Aaron said the prosthetic leg the guy had was "awesome looking."
Aaron is already making steps towards being able to be somewhat indepedent. He told me that today he took himself off of the pain-regulation system that allows him to hit a button for morphine anytime he wants. Now he has to request pain medication, which will be freely given to him. But he said he wants to start moving away from being drugged all the time and doesn't want to become dependent on the medication. He also said he has been figuring out how to move himself short distances such as from a bed to a gurney or a wheelchair, and that is encouraging to him because he said he figures the sooner he can move on his own, the sooner he can start rehabilitation. His insistence on doing that today had put him in a little bit of pain tonight, but he said he had requested and received medicine for it and wasn't hurting too badly.
So, on a good note, we come to the end of the first full week since the attack. It is hard to believe that it has only been one week. Time has taken on a very distorted quality since this happened, and it has certainly been the longest week of my life. I'm sure the rest of the family feels the same way. But we are thankful for the many mercies we have seen unfold even in the midst of this dark and difficult time. Aaron is with family, alive and awake and optimistic, and for that we thank God.
Again, we cannot thank you all enough for your love and prayers for us. Please continue to pray tonight for Aaron to have as little pain as possible, for the family to be able to rest, and for a good day tomorrow.
For tonight, I wanted to leave y'all with the words of a hymn that has always been very dear to me. In fact, it was sung at mine and Dan's wedding. Lately, it has come to take on even deeper meaning for me than it had before, especially the second and third verses.

Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace
Over all victorious in its bright increase.
Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day.
Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand.
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed,
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

Every joy or trial falleth from above,
traced upon our dial by the Sun of love.
We may trust him fully, all for us to do.
They who trust Him wholly find him wholly true.

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed,
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

And all of God's people can say AMEN!
Goodnight, dear ones.

When Aaron answered the phone this morning, he told me to hang on a minute because he had to talk to his nurse about something. Kelly then picked up the phone and said that what Aaron was doing was trying to convince his nurse to let him take off his I.V. and oxygen lines so he could go downstairs to the hospital's basement to eat lunch and get a haircut. I feel for any nurse that has to try to make Aaron behave like a model patient, because he is both incredibly persuasive and unendingly persistent. That's a nice way to say that he's going to harrass this poor woman until she lets him do whatever he wants to do anyway. Case in point: by the time Aaron got back on the phone with me, he had convinced his nurse to let him take his little trip without an I.V. or oxygen, even though she was adamantly opposed to this when the conversation began.
This trip is a celebration of sorts, because this morning, Aaron took his first steps since the attack. He used a walker, and he said it made him tired, but once he figured out how to do it, the nurse had to chase him down and make him stop. I'm told that Audrey has photos of this moment, so as soon as possible, we will get the photos up here on the site. Aaron was ecstatic to be able to get up and move around on his own.
In other good news, Aaron and Kelly slept for ten hours on their matching hospital beds last night. Kelly said it was nice to have a bed. They both sounded really well-rested today. It was so encouraging to talk to them. Please pray for the rest of the day to go well. More later.

Just a short note: I talked to Aaron, and he said his trip out of the hospital room was great. He went McDonald's, which I'm sure was better than hospital food, and got a haircut. Hannah and Audrey have been having a good time visiting with Aaron these last couple of days. When I called, they were all getting ready to watch a movie. I have some more things to post later, but for now, know that all is well and pray for Aaron and everyone else to get some good rest tonight. Thank you.

I am in the process of writing an update about what I've learned talking to Aaron today, but in the meantime, here are excerpts from an email that Kelly sent a few days ago. We had a small problem with my email address receiving it, so understand that it was written several days ago. Still, I thought you would all like to hear Kelly's perspective on all of this. Enjoy the words of my fantastic sister-in-law:

To all of our loyal fans,
I am honored and pleased to bring good news from Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. I finally can say the name of this hospital without messing it up a few times. It's been an interesting past few days, to say the least, and every day is better. We give credit to the Lord and your prayers for Aaron's amazing and consistent recovery. I'm sure everybody is anxious to get updates, so I took it upon myself to annoy the doctor and beg him to let me use his personal lap top so that you all could hear it straight from the horses mouth, which would be me, his faithful wife, Kelly.
If you haven't had the privilege to meet Aaron yet, you should know that he is a strong Marine and he has always had higher ambitions for his life than I could ever comprehend. He reaches every goal, nothing could ever get in his way, and he is always right, which can get frustrating, as you can imagine. He would do anything for a friend and he never meets a stranger. He has made it very clear to us that he is thankful that he was the one to get injured instead of one of his buddies in Iraq. He is the definition of sincere, noble, chivalrous, and brave. I can't believe that five years ago, as a 14 year old clueless girl, I snagged him and he's stuck with me this long.
And for those of you who do know him, well, to put it simply, he is still the same ole Aaron Rice we all know and love. He never ceases to amaze me. He is so strong it seems to defy logic. I just wish you all could see him, because he is truly an answer to every prayer. I think that we have tied up all the God lines for Aaron. I am so grateful for his every breath, blink and even flinch. He is alert, aware and able to comprehend this tragedy, but it is no tragedy in Aaron's eyes. And to add to his positive attitude, he is absolutely hilarious when he is awake. There are people lining up at his door waiting to talk to him because he has become famous for his entertainment. I am not kidding when I say that there are times when we are rolling on the floor with laughter. I believe this is also an answer to prayer. Only Aaron Rice can make this situation fun and make it look easy. If anybody can handle this, it's Aaron.
There is nothing stopping him. The narcotics, sleepiness, and pain medicine make for some pretty funny conversations. He feels pain in his legs of course, but the strong Marine will not complain about anything. We have to beg him to tell us where it hurts. It's unreal. His daily progress is breathtaking. He has his moments, don't get me wrong. The man has experienced more in two weeks than most people will experience in a lifetime.
Aaron is still proud to be a Marine. He shakes every man's hand and gives him a "Semper Fi" shout out, which is the Marine Corp motto meaning "always faithful." He is so very proud to have been able to serve his country. He told me he is glad to be home, but does not regret a thing about his time in Iraq. He loves his country and he loves the Marine Corp. He would go back to Iraq tomorrow if he could. But trust me, I'm never taking my eyes off him again.
And as for me, I am so proud to be the new wife of a hero. I am proud to serve him. I have come to understand what unconditional love really means. I will never take the vows I made to him on November 20, 2004 lightly: in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, till death do us part. We all have so much more to be grateful for than to be sad about. I really believe that God gave us two legs so that we could lose one. It is through your prayers and support that we can keep this positive attitude and motivation. It is so clear that the Holy Spirit is in the room with us, and is even filling Aaron's every breath. It's a feeling that just can't be explained in words. I am staying strong for Aaron's sake. He deserves it. I am so optimistic about the next few weeks. The Lord will get us through the tough times and provide us with many encouraging times. Before we all know it, Aaron will be up and running, literally, and ready to be there for all of us like you have been for him. I am so grateful for all of your messages and you really have no idea how much it has helped. There have been very few down times for me. Thank you all for your support of my Marine. It is humbling to think about the number of prayers lifted up on our behalf. I don't know what I would do without you all, even those who I have never met. I wish there was some way I could thank you personally, but you'll see in a few months that your prayers have been answered when Aaron is back on his path to reaching those goals and ambitions. We appreciate your prayers and concern. A second never goes by that I don't know I am being prayed for.
Thank you again for supporting my husband and our hero. He will be just fine, you have my word.

Kelly Rice

Happy Easter, everyone. Christ is risen!
Sorry to be slow about updating. I have unplugged myself a bit for the first time today to go to church and have Easter dinner with friends. But I've just talked to Aaron, and there is a lot of good news to report.
First off, Aaron was able to talk to Ryan today and tell him about the attack and about his leg. It sounds like Ryan is doing well. He was, understandably, very fearful when his drill instructor told him he needed to call his family. I think it's fair to say that when a loved one is at war or otherwise in harm's way, in the back of your mind, you are always afraid that someone is going to call and tell you that the worst has occurred, and you've probably even imagined how it would happen. Ryan told Mom today he had always thought that he would know something bad had happened if he was called into his drill instructor's office and told to call his family. I hate that he had to have that moment of agony, but his drill instructor did tell him immediately that Aaron is alive, and he was soon able to be on the phone with Aaron. Aaron said that they talked for almost two hours, and by the time Ryan got off the phone, it sounds like he was confident of what we all know: that Aaron is still himself, and he will be fine. Aaron and Ryan have a very close relationship, and if it's possible, I think they are even more proud to be brothers now. We thank God for the fact that Aaron was able to tell Ryan the news himself and that Ryan is handling it very well. Thank you for your prayers about this matter. It is a great load off of all our minds to have that resolved. Continue to pray that Ryan would be encouraged in spite of the fact that he has had this bad news while he is so far away from family and friends and in such a tough environment. Previously, we had requested that people not contact Ryan for the time being so that he would be free to finish the Crucible and also talk to Aaron in person. Now, he is to be congratulated on finishing the Crucible and being a Marine, so we rescind that request and say that if you want to send Ryan some mail, you just go right on ahead. Here is his address:

Rct. Rice Charles Ryan
PLT 1028 1st BN B CO
Box 11028
Parris Island, SC
29905-1028

As an update on the other Rice siblings, Hannah and Audrey left today to go back home after what sounds like a really good visit with Aaron. Aaron said he thought that once they were able to sit and talk with him and joke and laugh like we are prone to do as a family, they felt better. Dad is also back home for the time being. I hope to go for a visit soon, but there are some details to be resolved before I pick my dates. It will be good to visit, but I think the best day we can all picture right now will come when we can all be back home together around our family's table and eat one of Dad's fantastic meals. I know that's what I see in my better dreams.
As a closing note, now that Aaron has spoken with Ryan, he really wants to hear from the Marines of 214 Echo Battery and MAP-7. If anyone reading this knows how to contact them, please get in touch with me at haley@wachdorf.com and we'll talk.
Again, I apologize for the breaks in updates. More tomorrow. We love you all so much.

Hey folks. I'm starting to feel like I'm hosting my very own talk show here. Tonight on Missing Mississippi, we have a very special guest, Lance Corporal Aaron Rice, who has just weighed in with his own letter from Maryland.

Hey Haley!
Thank you so much for dedicating your website and time to my updates. Reading it and the responses on it was so much fun, I didn't want to reach the end. Hearing the stories from your perspective and with your famous "Haley style" humorous spin makes it so much fun to read. That and the fact that most of the stuff I read about me being in ICU was also news to me made it very interesting. Yes, the drugs were very strong. I have to say I crack myself up sometimes. I guess I can now honestly say that sometimes I amaze even myself. (A note to our readers: "Sometimes I amaze even myself" is a famous saying of our Dad's. It's just fabulous to know that now we'll have two people saying it. -Haley) Now that I am able to get up and about, I thought everyone would like to hear a word or two from my big mouth.
I want to start by assuring everyone that I am doing very well and that there is no need to worry about me. The loss of my leg does not concern me, for several reasons. First of all, I can only praise God for sparing my life. The IED exploded within a few feet of my body. I should be dead right now and the only reason I'm not is because God was watching me and protecting me. The wounds I did receive from the blast were kept to minimal impact on my body thanks to the Marines and corpsmen taking care of me after the explosion. Everyone did exactly what they were trained to do, even though we were receiving incoming mortar fire. They recovered me from the vehicle even though my right leg was trapped, stopped my bleeding and injected me with morphine, got me out of the danger area and into a building they secured, and called in a medivac perfectly and had me in the sky within 30 minutes. I know that the prayers of so many countless people were answered on that day. Not only could I be dead, but my injuries could be so much worse. I could have brain damage, be paralyzed, have failing organs, be blind, deaf, mutilated, be a paraplegic, or all sorts of combinations of horrible injuries. But instead, I am just switching out one leg for another, and I am keeping my knee in the process, which will make the situation almost as if I never lost the leg to begin with. I am receiving the best treatment in the world, my prosthetic will be made with the best technology in the world, and I will be walking, running, climbing and swimming within no time. I will be 100 percent functional, just like I was when I left, and that is so much more than can be said for so many who have suffered injuries in Iraq. People tend to cringe when they hear the word "amputate" because all they can think of is permanently losing a limb. But I'm not just losing a limb, I'm getting a great one in exchange for it. I have heard so much from other patients about how prosthetic technology has come so far in the last few years because of the War on Terrorism, and that these new prosthetics are almost like having your old leg back. Especially when you still have your knee. I was blessed by God and fast action by my friends in combat and can only be grateful that I have my knee.
The point I am getting to is that soon, I will be back home, enjoying my new life with my new bride. And this event, while not in our choosing, has allowed me to come home alive and well. And with everything I have been blessed with, I will be able to enjoy my life exactly the way I did before I left. The only difference will be that I'll have to snap my leg on in the morning and snap it off at night. That's not a lot to complain about. I can honestly say that my only regret is that I had to leave my buddies back in Iraq to do the job without me. (Guys, if your reading this, I will be praying for you every day. You have my word on that. You guys keep your heads in the game, and stay safe and come home alive because I want to see each and every one of you when you get back!) Apparently Kelly is not in favor of me going back to Iraq when I get healed up, so I won't be going back anytime soon. Really though, I am so happy to be home, I can't wait to get walking (and running) again so I can see everyone back home. I can't wait to start back school at Mississippi State, move into mine and Kelly's first home and start our lives together, see all my friends and family, and just enjoy life back here at home. I've missed it, and I can only thank God for bringing me home. Thank you all for your prayers, they have kept me alive and are keeping me in high spirits and in well recovery now. I can never thank ya'll for all the support I've received. It amazes me how much love has been poured out for me. I only hope I can return it all when I get back. Thanks again for everything, and keep me in your prayers.


Sincerely,
Aaron Rice

Well, I've only talked to Aaron very briefly this morning, and since then we've been playing phone tag. When I called, Aaron was in the middle of working with his physical therapist. By the time he called me back, I was in the middle of shooting photos for a story about book clubs that I'm working on, and since I was in a public library, I had my phone turned off. Aaron left me a message saying that he was on his way out the door to have lunch with a guy from across the hall. Because we have to get our socializing in, you know. I'm still not getting any answer, so I figure Aaron is off doing what he does best, namely talking to someone. Until I get to talk to him again, there is one thing that I forgot to mention in last night's update.
I've mentioned before that Aaron's right leg was also hurt in the explosion. The doctors are not sure what his injuries there are, although they suspect a torn ACL. (OK. I don't know what ACL stands for, but my sports fan husband tells me that football players and other athletes get this injury from time to time. There's my expert ESPN injury analysis.) They need to do an MRI to confirm that diagnosis, but they will have to wait a few weeks to do that because Aaron has a lot of shrapnel in his body. Apparently, the magnetic effects of the metal could damage the machinery, so they have to wait a few weeks to allow scar tissue to form around the pieces of shrapnel. I'm starting to think that going through airport security checkpoints is going to be a nightmare for Aaron from now on, but that's not my main point. Once they can do tests and find out if Aaron will need surgery on that leg also, we'll have a better idea of what kind of rehabilitation time he will be looking at, so pray that he will be able to have those tests soon and that the prognosis will be good. I know that Aaron really wants to be able to move through rehab quickly, and less surgery would be helpful. In the meantime, he's wearing a leg brace on that leg when he is up and about. Apparently, he's very mobile, because I can't catch him in his room!
More later.

I am so sorry that it has taken a long time to post a real update today. Once I tracked Aaron down, there was a lot to hear from his exciting day in the hospital. Only Aaron could make a day in a hospital for severely wounded men sound like a thrilling adventure.
First off, Aaron has been told that he may be released from the Naval Medical Center as early as Wednesday, assuming that a spot at Walter Reed can be found for him. If that turns out to be true, I will get a new address for him ASAP, but in the meantime, he is receiving his mail just fine and anything that he misses will be forwarded to him. Aaron's doctors and physical therapists are amazed by how rapidly he is recovering. He said that today, he rolled himself into his physical therapist's work space and hopped up on the table on his own power. After working for a few minutes, his therapist began asking him how long he had been at Bethesda. When Aaron told her that he had been there eight days, she said "Did you come from a stay at another hospital?" He told her that he only stopped off briefly in Germany, and her jaw dropped. Aaron said she told him "I've never seen any amputee in this good shape after only eight days!" And that seems to the common response. Aaron's rapid recovery and good spirits seem to be raising eyebrows all over the hospital, and for that, we credit God Almighty. He is the great physician, and he is healing Aaron. As the hymn says, "Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me."
It sounds like there is just too much good news to report from Maryland today. Aaron told me that he was starting to worry about how he and Kelly will pay their bills when they are back in Starkville. Their long-term plan was that by the time Aaron got back home, Kelly would have graduated from college and would be able to work while Aaron finished school. Aaron's combat pay would have provided them a significant nest egg to use for emergencies. But the injury and recuperation period has thrown that plan significantly off track. Kelly has had to leave in the middle of the academic semester and will probably miss summer classes as well. So now it looks like Aaron and Kelly will both be in the process of finishing school for more than a year and have bills to pay in the meantime. Aaron told me that today, he was starting to get worried about how they would make ends meet while they are both going to school full-time. It's a legitimate concern, because although Aaron will receive disability pay, it's not enough to live on.
Aaron said he hadn't really verbalized that concern to anyone but Kelly when they got some wonderful news. Aaron has been recuperating along with a young man named T.C. Rawlins. (I don't know if I'm spelling that right! That just horrifies my journalist soul.) T.C. was a student at Mississippi State University before he was deployed. He and Aaron have been spending a lot of time together, and Aaron and Kelly have also gotten to be good friends with this young man's mother. Today, just as Aaron was starting to worry in his mind about getting the bills paid while he and Kelly are still in Starkville, T.C.'s mom told them that she owns and rents apartments in two complexes in Starkville. She told them that they are welcomed to live in one of her apartments rent-free while they finish school. Can you imagine? What a burden off of Kelly and Aaron to not have to worry about rent! But even more importantly, as Aaron said to me today on the phone: What are the odds that Aaron would be recovering at the same time as another Marine from Starkville, whose mother owns apartment complexes and is generous enough to give Aaron and Kelly a free place to live? There is no explanation for that other than the abundant grace of God. We are so thankful to Him. Needless to say, we also owe T.C. Rawlins' mother a lifetime supply of cookies or whatever else she wants. Aaron and Kelly will still have finiancial issues to sort out after all of this is done, but this is a great help.
And the news just gets better. Today, Aaron received a phone call from his entire platoon in Iraq via a satellite phone. After Ryan, these are the people Aaron most wanted to hear from in the whole world, and he was able to speak to each of them in turn. He was so encouraged by this, and said that some moments in the phone call were quite emotional, especially speaking to Corbin (again, unsure spelling), the Marine who wrestled Aaron from the wreckage of his Hummer, risking his own life while they were under enemy fire, as well as the medic who tended him immediately following the attack, probably saving him from bleeding to death right there, and one of his favorite superior officers, Mayer. Aaron has also been hearing from the friends and families of his original platoon from Jackson and that is also so encouraging to him. What a blessing for Aaron to be able to speak to these men and tell them what we all want them to know, which is that we will be forever indebted to them for their valor and strength.
Aaron also got to visit with a childhood friend from Yazoo City, Andrew Ewing. Andrew came to visit him and went to lunch with Aaron and Mom and Kelly and Rawling and his mother. Aaron said he was absolutely bowled over that someone he hasn't seen in years would drive an hour and a half just to visit with him. He really enjoyed that. Thank you to Andrew and many other people who know us from years past who have visited, and people who have never met us who have gone to see Aaron. Being the social animal that he is, Aaron really enjoys having visitors.
In terms of Aaron's health, there is also good news to report. Today, he had a CAT scan to make sure that he doesn't have blood clots in his lungs or legs as a result of being sedated and in bed for so long. We are thankful that the preliminary report shows no blood clots, which is good news.
We are so very thankful to all of you for your prayers. We know that they are availing much for us. Tonight, we ask for your prayers for several things.
First, Aaron would like to be approved for a transfer to Walter Reed as soon as possible. Once he is at Walter Reed, he will be able to begin rehabilitation, and that will be one step closer to going home.
Secondly, we are trying to form plans for Ryan's graduation from Marine basic training on April 8. Aaron is talking to his doctors about the possibility that he might be temporarily released from the hospital long enough to go to Ryan's graduation at Parris Island. On the day that we learned of Aaron's injury, Dan and I were looking at airline fares for me to go to the graduation, but those plans have been on hold since then. Now, what we are hoping is that the whole family might be able to attend the graduation. We so want to be there to support Ryan on this important day. In order for that to happen, Aaron needs to get a clearance from his doctors to go out of town. It seems reasonable to hope that this might happen based on his progress so far. Please pray that he will continue to improve enough that his doctors will feel confident allowing him to travel. After that, I need to find a way to get across the country on fairly short notice. We have a few ideas on how to make that happen, but we'd appreciate your prayers for that to all work out as well. It is possible that this may not happen, and if that's the case, the next best scenario would be for me to visit Aaron at the same time that Ryan comes to see him shortly after Marine graduation. I would prefer to see the whole family, but it is important to me to see both Ryan and Aaron if at all possible. Compared to the rest of it, these are minor concerns, but they mean a lot to us as a family right now.
After that lengthy writing session, I need to go to bed. I owe a great many of you emails and responses to questions, and I promise to catch up soon. Please continue to pray for us. God is good.

Good morning, everyone. I talked to Aaron on my way to work this morning before he got started on his physical therapy for the day. He said the final results of the CAT scan checking for blood clots in his lungs aren’t in yet. Until then, he has to keep taking these daily shots of blood thinners, which is what he was doing when I called ... it didn’t sound like fun to me, but I'm a wimp. Pray that they can absolutely rule out blood clots so that Aaron can have one less shot to take. I am happy to say that he has been taken off of supplemental oxygen and intravenous fluid, which makes it much easier for him to move around.
Aaron also said that he was able to get online in the hospital’s computer lab last night and check out the web site some more, and he is so enjoying reading all your comments. He said it actually got him a little choked up, which is a pretty big deal for a big, tough Marine. Thank you all for the love you are pouring out on our family. We feel so blessed.
It is worth noting that another great providence has appeared for our family: The hospital staff at Bethesda have recently started bringing around free Starbuck’s coffee for the troops and families in the hospital. If you know our family well, you are familiar with our enthusiasm for/addiction to good coffee. I was getting ready to ship Aaron a coffee maker and some quality beans if he was having to drink bad hospital coffee, but he assures me that he is well-caffeinated. That’s a blessing for everyone else, too, because we Rices are very difficult to deal with if we don’t get our coffee. Ask my husband.
At the start of today, please pray for a good physical therapy session for Aaron and for continued healing. He said that they changed the dressings on his left leg, and it is healing up really well at the amputation site, but he has a nasty bruised place on part of it that needs to heal.
On another note, I forgot to mention in yesterday’s marathon post that when I talked to Mom, she said she has been coughing much, much less and she asked me to thank you all for your prayers for her. She was even laughing about an adventure she had trying to get some photos put on a disc to send to me, and it was great to hear her in such good spirits.
More later today.

It sounds like our patient has had an exciting day. Aaron said his nurses have already spread the word to the doctors and specialists that need to see him that they will have to initiate a hospital-wide hunt for him if they don't catch him before he gets in his wheelchair in the morning.
The best news from today is that Aaron has been told that he is definitely eligible to go to Walter Reed either Wednesday or Thursday, depending on when a spot can be found for him. The site of his amputation still needs to heal more, but apparently, there is preparatory work he can be doing at Walter Reed before rehab while he continues to heal. It is good to be one step closer to Aaron being able to walk again.
First thing this morning, Aaron went to see a specialist of some sort to do tests to determine if he has suffered any brain damage from the attack. He was given a wide range of cognitive tests, and he passed them with flying colors. It's good to know that his head will be alright. Or, at least, as close to being alright as it ever was.
He also saw an audiologist today. Aaron's ears have always been a source of difficulty for him, because since he was a small child, he has had recurring infections in his right ear. Because of all the tubes and infections, he has reduced hearing in that ear to start with. Because of the explosion, his hearing has been further reduced in his good ear. Aaron said he thinks that over the years, he has adapted to his reduced hearing, and he hadn't really noticed a difference, but he has been told that it's possible he could have a surgery while he's at Walter Reed to help improve his hearing. Pray for wisdom for Aaron and his doctors on this issue.
Aaron also said that he traveled with a walker today farther than he has yet ... all around the circumference of his hospital floor. We're thankful for his increasing strength and endurance, since they are a sign that he is continuing to improve in general.
Aaron said that today, he decided it's probably better for him to stay on a semi-regular dose of oral pain medication, instead of waiting for the pain to get bad before he takes anything. He said in the morning, he is usually not in pain, but by the time he moves around a bit, he is hurting pretty badly by early afternoon. So he has been put on a regular dose of something that doesn't make him lethargic or confused like the morphine did, and he is having less pain now. Aaron also saw a chiropractor today for pain he has been having in his back. He said he got a lot of relief from the treatment and plans to go back.
Aaron said he received a lot of mail today, including a very special pacakge from the Governor's Office of Mississippi. Aaron worked on Haley Barbour's gubernatioral campaign in 2004. Last week, Governor Barbour had a state flag flown over the capitol in Aaron's honor, and today a package with that flag and a proclamation honoring Aaron's service, signed by the govenor, arrived at the hospital. Aaron was thrilled and so honored, and he said as soon as he is home, he is going to have the whole thing framed. No doubt it will hang in a place of honor in all of he and Kelly's homes for the rest of his life. Many thanks to the Governor's Office for making the effort to recognize Aaron in this way ... he will remember it forever.
We have a few prayers requests for y'all tonight. Aaron spoke to a social worker today about his desire to attend Ryan's graduation. We don't have a firm answer on that yet, but they are going to start looking into it. We don't want Aaron to do anything bad for his medical condition, but if it's physically possible, it would be great for Aaron to go to Ryan's graduation. So just pray for wisdom for everyone involved.
We also have some prayer requests for other Marines. When Aaron was in ICU, one of the men there with him was a Marine who was run over by a 7-ton military vehicle in Iraq. It is really amazing that he survived it, but he is still essentially in the same place that Aaron was several days ago in the sense that he is in and out of consciousness and on a ventilator. Obviously, he is also facing much greater physical challenges than Aaron. Aaron has been visiting him in ICU for the last couple of days and trying to talk to him and encourage him, and he seems to respond well to Aaron as another Marine. But Aaron said that they have heard that this young man has some sort of lung infection which is very bad for him in his condition. Please pray for this Marine and his family, that he will improve and recover in spite of his desperate injuries. Aaron said visiting this young man has made him increasingly aware of how blessed he is to have only lost a leg and not be physically destroyed. We know that we have your prayers for Aaron and our family, so we ask that you please speak to God about this man as well.
In happier news, T.C., Aaron's friend from Starkville, is very close to going home. T.C. was injured when a Hummer flipped over. He was the gunner for the Humvee, and so was on top of the vehicle when it flipped. He was nearly crushed, and a weapon discharged in the crash, further injuring him. He has progressed well and if all goes well within the next few days, he should be allowed to go home. Based on our experience, we know how happy this will make him and his family, so please pray that he will continue to improve.
As soon as Aaron gets word on his transfer to Walter Reed, I will get a new address for mail. That's all for tonight. Aaron said he was going to get online and check out the site again tonight, so leave him some comments!
We love y'all.

Kelly and Mom were kind enough to send me some of the photos that have been taken in the last week. I thought y'all might want to see some of them.

This photo of Aaron and Kelly was taken when Aaron was in ICU and still mostly unconscious:

Mom and Aaron in Aaron's room at Bethesda

Aaron's favored mode of transportation these days:

Aaron's celebratory trip to McDonald's:

This I believe is a photo taken the first time Aaron was able to get up and move around the room with a walker. This is a good moment:

Good morning, everyone.
I spoke with Aaron this morning, and it sounded like he's having a pretty good day. First of all, Aaron used crutches to walk around for a while this morning, and found them much more to his liking than the walker. He also got to take the first real shower he's taken since getting to the hospital, and he said that was really great. I'm sure Kelly appreciates it also.
Aaron said that his back pain was pretty bad last night. The doctors are telling him that the process of bearing all his weight on his one leg and being in bed a lot is probably making his pelvis and spine be misalligned and as he gets into rehab it should improve, but pray that his pain would be less in the meantime. He saw a chiropractor yesterday and that seemed to give him some temporary relief.
Also, I forgot to mention that last night, Aaron told me he has stopped seeing double now and is only having a little bluriness in his eye that was hurt. Praise God for that!
Aaron said getting online and reading all of your comments is becoming one of his favorite pastimes, so keep them coming. More as the day progresses.

Hi, y'all.
Not a lot to report this evening. It's been a busy day, and I haven't spoken with Aaron very much, but we have learned a bit more about what Aaron's situation will be when he is at Walter Reed. Once he is admitted there for prosthetic therapy, he and Kelly will stay in apartment-type housing near the hospital and he will just show up for his appointments. That is really nice for them, because they will be able to have a little more normal schedule and not be constantly talking to doctors and nurses. We love the doctors and the nurses, but I'm sure it would be nice for Aaron and Kelly not to live in a hospital room for the next month and a half.
Aaron also told me that the specialist he saw the other day to make sure that he isn't suffering any cognitive difficulties told him that to help him keep sharpening his responses, he should play video games. VIDEO GAMES. Being told by a doctor to play video games is, I'm pretty sure, every guy's dream. So Aaron is having his X-box from home sent to him, and he'll be playing Halo 2 for his health soon, just in case any of you were concerned that he might not be getting his couch potato time in. I think my husband, Dan, is already hatching a plan to bribe a doctor to prescribe X-box therapy for him.
In closing, I wanted to post this fantastic photo that Kelly send to me today. One of Kelly's college roomates in Starkville, Megan, is engaged to a young man named Russ. One of Russ's nephews, Seth, upon hearing about Aaron's injury, got busy immediately requesting prayers from his neighbors via sidewalk chalk. This was the result:

We've got the World Wide Web, and Seth has his driveway. Let's hear it for mass communication! Thank you so much, Seth.
That's all for tonight. Goodnight. Please keep praying.

Aaron sounded pretty tired when I talked to him this morning after a tough physical therapy session. Aaron, always the overachiever, was trying really hard and doing so well in his physical therapy that his therapist told him he "must be Superman." So he put him on this stationary bike-type machine that you turn with your arms, only he put it on a really hard setting. Aaron said making one turn with it was almost impossible, and the guy wanted him to do it for 15 minutes!
So Aaron quickly admitted that he is not, in fact, Superman, and the therapist dropped it down to a less ultrahuman setting, and all was well. Aaron said everyone can still feel free to call him Superman. I'm sure he'll be putting it on his business cards soon.
Aside from that, Aaron said he didn't think there was a lot on his agenda today except "rolling around looking for some trouble to get into." On a sad note, T.C., Aaron's buddy from Starkville who was injured when a Humvee flipped over, has been told that he can't go home just yet. It looks like it will be a few more weeks, and that is dissapointing news for him and his family, so please pray that he'll progress well and be able to go home as soon as possible. Although I'm not at the hospital now, I get the feeling there is just something intrinsically stressful about being in that environment all the time, and T.C.'s family has been there longer than ours. On a good note, Aaron said that T.C.'s girlfriend is going to come back up and visit him again now that it looks like he'll be hospitalized a little longer. Aaron has recently discovered that T.C. knows how to play the card game Spades, which is Aaron's all-time favorite card game with the possible exception of poker. So now the plan is that this weekend, Aaron and T.C. are going to teach Kelly and my mom and T.C.'s mom and his girlfriend to play spades. Then they are going to take a trip to a nearby park with picnic tables and outdoor grills, where they will grill some meat, play some cards, and just generally behave like the good ol' boys they are at heart. I'm sure that will cheer T.C. up and amuse the native residents of Maryland in the process. You can take the boys out of Mississippi, but ... well, you know.
More later today.

Excellent news to report tonight: The entire Rice family is going to be able to make it to Ryan's graduation from Marine basic training at Parris Island. Aaron and Kelly found out today that the Marines are going to help them out with tickets costs through a program that allows people to donate their frequent flier miles to a fund for injured soldiers and their families who often have unexpected and expensive travel needs. Tomorrow I am going to find out the name of the program and put up a link to it here. I was able to get a ticket on Southwest Airlines thanks to David and Cheryl Smith, friends of ours from Providence Presbyterian Church here in Albuquerque who were generous enough to offer me a Rapid Rewards ticket they had earned on the airline. Obviously, if they need anything written or if their computer breaks, we are eternally at their service. (Writing and fixing computers kind of encompasses all of mine and Dan's useful skills.)I also need to thank my in-laws, Lorrae and Arthur Wachdorf, and my aunt and uncle, Emily and Gil Sikora. Both of those couples also offered help in the form of frequent flier miles or rewards tickets. As it turned out, Southwest was my best option in terms of flight availability and schedule, but I'm so thankful to have had options, and so thankful to be able to go. I'm actually going to fly to Jackson and drive with the family to South Carolina, which sounds like an adventure in and of itself. We are all just ecstatic that we will be able to be there for Ryan on this occasion and see each other. I feel really bad for whatever unfortunate sane family gets stuck in a hotel room next to the ones we have reserved in SC. Good luck keeping us quiet!
Just wanted to share the fantastic news.
More tomorrow.

When I called this morning, Aaron was highly chapped because Mom and Kelly were holding up his plans for the day. Apparently, Aaron got up and about this morning at 5 a.m. working to convince his various doctors and nurses that it would be fine for him to get out of the hospital for a day of sightseeing in the Washington, D.C. area. His campaign worked, and he was given permission to go, but when I talked to him, he was waiting on Kelly and Mom to get beautified so they could leave.
"If it were up to me, I would have been out on the streets of D.C. by 6 a.m., Haley, but it's taking the ladies three hours to get dressed," he said.
That made me laugh, because my family's general inability to get anywhere in a hurry or on a deadline is legendary. In fact, my Dad even has a name for it: Lowry Standard Time. Lowry is my mother's maiden name, and my dad has a theory that there is some kind of genetic oddity passed down from that side of the family that takes away all concept of time passing. He might be right, but somehow I think it's probably good that Aaron has someone to slow him down ... it might not be good for him to wander around D.C. for 14 hours straight. He had what sounded like a pretty ambitious agenda for all the monuments and things he wanted to see, and they were getting ready to brave the Metro system to get down to the Capitol. I'm sure there will be tall tales to tell from that adventure, so stay tuned.
Aaron also told me last night that he had his eyes checked out yesterday, and his vision is perfect in both eyes. Actually, in the eye that was injured, he has 20/15 vision, better than perfect. So now he really thinks he is Superman. We're so thankful that his eyes are going to be OK.
I'll check in tonight with the story of their day, and in the meantime, please pray that they stay safe while they're out and about.
Happy Friday.

Hey Everyone!,
I just wanted to let you all know what an encouragement you have all been. I get online at least a few times a day to check the new postings, and just to read Haley's spin on things. It is so nice to have such an easy way to read encouraging thoughts from everyone back home. Please keep it up. If there is anything you would like to tell me, just drop a line on Haley's website! I promise I will enjoy reading it.
I did have a fun day in D.C. today. I just got back and now I am cooking out steaks with T.C., the guy from Starkville. We are having a good time, and I just stopped to read the new comments and leave a note for everyone. I am still doing great. I have yet to get discouraged in the least. As much as all of you praise my ability to stay optimistic, believe me, it is easy with such love and support from back home. Another thing that keeps things in perspective for me is one of my hobbies of visiting Marines who are hurt much worse than myself. It is a great pastime because they enjoy getting a visit from a fellow brother in the Marine Corps and I enjoy encouraging them, and also realize everytime how truly blessed I am. I am looking foward to seeing Ryan this coming week, and to starting rehabilitation afterwards. Keep me in your prayers and God bless you all for your support.

Love,
Aaron Rice

A note from Haley: Several of you have asked me for an address for Aaron. At the moment, it looks like he will be going to an entry appointment at Walter Reed early next week, either Tuesday or Wednesday. Once he's admitted, we should have a new address. Until then, I would say hold off on the snail mail because it might take a while to get forwarded to him. I'll get y'all a new address as soon as we have one. Have a good evening, and keep checking in.

Aaron asked me to post this photo of him in his red Marine shirt because he thinks he looks "healthy and sexy" in it. I don't know if that's true, but it's good to know his self esteem has not been damaged. Hope y'all like this photo as much as Aaron does.
Sorry for the lack of updates today. Aaron has been out and about D.C. again and was hard to catch in his room. I actually ended up talking to Mom today, which was good. She said Aaron and Kelly went out to see a movie, and they bought Aaron a new wedding ring. I noticed in the pictures they have been sending that Aaron did not have his wedding ring on, and it turns out that it had to be cut off of his hand after the attack. He still has it, but it's got a big gap in it, so they got him a new one today. Now all the women in the hospital who notice that Aaron is healthy and sexy will also notice that he is taken.
It sounds like right now, Aaron is mostly just waiting for a space to open up at Walter Reed, so he's got a lot of time on his hands. Mom is still there with he and Kelly. She will be traveling to South Carolina with them for Ryan's graduation this week and then she will go back to Mississippi. Please continue to pray for Mom's health. She said she has been feeling sick again today and coughing. Please pray that she will be able to stay healthy through this week and then go home and rest. It's been a long two weeks.
That's about all for tonight. Tomorrow I hope to track Aaron down and talk to him in person, if he can find the time. Thanks for checking in. More tomorrow.

I got this email from Kelly this morning and she wanted it passed on to y'all. Enjoy.

Hey y'all,
As you've read in Haley's blog, we're not exactly hanging around the hospital much these days. If I had it my way, I would be sleeping all day, but Aaron is perfectly happy making his mom and I push him around Washington D.C. and the entire state of Maryland it seems, so that is exactly what we have been doing. It has been a blast. We kind of consider this a really weird sort of vacation, all expenses paid. I'm sure you all are jealous that you don't get to spend several weeks in a Naval hospital.
There are a lot of things that Aaron and I have agreed on since this whole thing happened. The main thing is that this really is not that big of a deal. We actually hardly consider this a stepping stone or a hurdle. It's just something we have to take head on just like we all have to do in life sometimes, right? Aaron's attidue is amazing, as we all know by now. He tells me all the time that he likes his "stump" and thinks it's awesome because it adds character to him. He plans on putting an Operation Iraqi Freedom sticker and a USMC sticker on his new leg because he's proud of it. He also wants to name his stump, so we are open to suggestions. Another thing we've agreed on is that we are so blessed to have been chosen by God to be an inspiration to so many. It's crazy to me the way God will change your life in a matter of seconds. I love Ryan Rayborne's comment: "God never wastes a hurt." We have already seen so many prayers answered and our little experience has so far shown us that God never closes a door without opening another.
We really are having fun here, as weird as that sounds. Aaron lets nothing get him down. The nurses are having a fit because they can never find him. They finally gave him an "official" weekend pass because they knew he wouldn't come back to his hospital room anyway. Washington D.C. was great. It was very humbling to Aaron to have Vietnam veterans go out of their way to shake his hand and thank him for his service. If you know Aaron at all, you know he is a huge history and war buff, so he was in his own personal heaven as we walked through the WWII memorial and the Vietnam memorial. We took LOTS of pictures so you will see them on this site shortly. I have a feeling we will be back at those memorials at least three times a week until it is time for us to go back to my personal heaven that is Mississippi.
We are trying hard to stay patient but Aaron is so ready to get his new leg and start running marathons. We have met so many inspirational people so far, such as T.C. Rollins (Marine from Miss.) and his faithful mom, Millie, who we will always be thankful for and never forget. In God's perfect timing, we will be back in Mississippi in our own little corner of the world. We just want to thank y'all for being so dedicated to Haley's site and keeping us encouraged. We praise God for the power of prayer. One of the last things Aaron told me before he left for Iraq was, "This will all be over with before you know it." Well I would like to pass those wise words on to you all, so you can expect us home in no time. Thank you for everything!
"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." - our testimony.
Love,
Kelly

These are some photos from Aaron, Kelly and Mom's trip to the D.C. area. They saw a lot of the monuments.
I think this photo of Aaron was taken in front of part of the WW II memorial.

Aaron and Kelly in front of the Southern states part of the WW II memorial. We're fond of those states.

Mom and Aaron taking a break.

When I talked to Aaron today, he said he slept a lot today after having a pretty rough night in terms of pain. He asked for a sleep aid and was given it early in the morning, and then he fell asleep in the middle of Kelly trying to read her letter for the web site to him. Apparently she had quite a time getting him back to his bed. He slept for a long time and then took a two hour nap in the afternoon, which is good. Aaron said he has still been waking up at five a.m. no matter what because of the short sleep schedule he was on in Iraq, so sleep is good any time he can get it. When he woke up, he and Kelly and Mom made a run to the Dunkin Donuts downstairs in the hospital, and when I talked to them, they were getting ready to watch a movie. The next couple of days should be fairly low-key since Aaron is just waiting to be transferred to Walter Reed and then leave for Ryan's graduation.
Please pray that Aaron would get lots of sleep and be able to be well-rested for all the travel coming up this week. Pray that Mom would feel better and her coughing will decrease, and pray that all the details of Aaron's transfer to Water Reed will go smoothly. He and Kelly will have to wait for some apartment style housing to open up before they can move into their own space, so pray that there would be an opening soon so they can start setting up some semblance of a schedule for themselves soon.
No address for Aaron at Walter Reed yet, so please just hang on to your postal mail until we get one. Thank you all so much ... Aaron and Kelly are checking the site several times a day to keep up on their fan mail, so keep leaving them comments. That's all for tonight. More tomorrow.

Well, Aaron has escaped from National Naval Medical Center. Mom said he checked out this morning and will be considered an outpatient until he begins his rehabilitation. He and Kelly are not in the apartment-style housing they hope to be considered for during Aaron's time at Walter Reed, but are staying in a handicapped-accesible room in the hotel style place that Kelly and Mom have been staying in. Aaron will have his first appointment at Walter Reed on Wednesday morning before he leaves to attend Ryan's graduation, and will probably have his first true day of rehabilitation a week from today.
Mom said that when Aaron was checking out, he was given a good evaluation, but in that report the nurse said that Aaron has tissue damage in two places on his right knee instead of just one as we previously thought. He has to wear a brace on it when he uses crutches right now, but as far as we understand, it will require surgery sometime soon. We haven't really heard the whole story on what the damage is yet, so please pray that Aaron and Kelly can talk to someone and get a clear pictures of what kind of surgery he's looking at for that and how long it will take to make that knee fully functional.
More tonight.

Prior to Aaron and Ryan becoming Marines, we have not been a military family. Perhaps that explains how foreign the process of all of this has seemed to us, although I suspect that there’s really no amount of information that can prepare you for an event of this nature. But in spite of the difficulties of the last few weeks, we have been blessed to stumble upon or be sought out by the following organizations who make it their sole mission to assist military families in times of crisis. If you want, take a minute to stop by the Web sites of these organizations.
Soldier’s Angels, www.solidersangels.com, performs multiple services for deployed or injured soliders including an adopt a solider program which allows an individual or organization to choose a soldier to write to or send a care package. They also make themselves available to families of injured troops and helped us find the next organization listed here:
Operation Hero Miles, www.heromiles.org, allows organizations and individuals to donate frequent flier miles into a fund for soliders and their families. If I am not mistaken, our family took advantage of Operation Hero Miles during the last several weeks. This is an interesting program, because a provision for these donations was actually signed into law as part of the 2005 Defense Appropriations Bill. Information on how to donate miles is on the site. We can attest to the fact that an event like this makes for a lot of unexpected travel for families, and any help with the expense of that is greatly appreciated.
The Fisher House is another great organization. Here is some information from their web site, but to learn more, visit www.fisherhouse.org.
“Because members of the military and their families are stationed worldwide and must often travel great distances for specialized medical care, Fisher House Foundation donates "comfort homes," built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful times - during the hospitalization for an unexpected illnes, disease, or injury. Annually, the Fisher House program serves more than 8,500 families, and have made available more than 1,500,000 days of lodging to family members since the program originated in 1990.”
Also, the Web site address for Walter Reed, where Aaron will be doing his rehabilitation, is www.wramc.emedd.army.mil. They have a lot of really interesting information there, if anyone wants to learn more about it.
Just thought that might make for some fun light reading for y'all. If you have trouble with the links here, I'm sure you can just Google the names of the organizations and find their sites easily.

Happy Tuesday, everyone.
I talked to Mom today and it sounds like she and Aaron and Kelly will be busy today and tomorrow getting Aaron all checked in at Walter Reed and then getting ready to leave for South Carolina. Aaron is considered an outpatient right now, as I mentioned before, which means he and Kelly are responsible for staying on top of his medications and such. There’s a lot of that sort of thing to do, so pray that it will all go smoothly, since Aaron will be far away from his doctors this week. In a pretty funny note, we’ve been told that our family is supposed to sit in the VIP seating area at Ryan’s graduation, which is somewhat disconcerting, so please pray that we don’t fall off the podium or embarrass ourselves or Ryan in any way. We’re not really accustomed to being Very Important anything, and I have a feeling funny stories are forthcoming.
Please pray for safe travel for our family this week. I’ll be taking a flight from Albuquerque to Jackson tonight and then driving to South Carolina with Dad and the girls. Kelly and Mom and Aaron will all by flying to South Carolina on Wednesday, and then there will be a variety of return trips. All told, we’ll be covering a lot of miles and we’d appreciate your prayers for smooth, safe travel.
With that, I am afraid that the site is going to be very low on updates for the next few days. I won’t be back home again until Sunday and it is very doubtful that I will have Internet access in the meantime. So, if you have any pressing questions, send an email to my wonderful husband, Dan, at daniel@wachdorf.com. If I get any information during my visit that I think y’all might want ASAP, such as an address for Aaron and Kelly while Aaron is at Walter Reed, I will give it to Dan and he can post it. Incedentally, I need to thank Dan for living with me the last few weeks as I have been something of a basketcase and have had my hands glued to our laptop for hours at a time keeping up with email and posting updates. He's also provided wonderful technical service for the site, which, people, is getting roughly 1,500 hits a day, WAY more than it ever has. It's to his credit that it hasn't crashed or had any major complications. To show your appreciation, if you live in the Albuquerque metro area, feel free to feed Dan while I’m gone. He’s being really sweet about the fact that I am going away and leaving him all alone for most of the week, and I don’t want him to starve.
On that note, I will say farewell for now. Feel free to keep on leaving comments for Aaron, since he will be able to check them once he gets back to D.C., and please pray for our trip. We love and appreciate you all so much.

Oh, people. What a weekend. There is so much to tell y'all that I am overwhelmed. But at the moment, I am also on my way out the door to work. So you'll have to wait until tonight for the whole story. In the meantime, we do have a couple of prayer requests for y'all.
Today, Aaron should begin his first set of therapy appointments at Walter Reed. This is the beginning of a very important phase because this is the place and these are the people who are going to help Aaron walk again. But it's not all going to happen today. It's going to be a long process, and, like the rest of this, I'm sure it will have its ups and downs for Aaron and for Kelly. Please pray that God would give Aaron's therapists wisdom, give Aaron patience and perserverance and help Kelly to know the best way to support Aaron during this time. She's been doing a great job at that, by the way.
Also, Ryan, our newest Marine, is now home on a ten day leave. He and Aaron were able to spend some time together this weekend, but it was fragmented and brief. Right now, Aaron is trying to find a way to get Ryan up to Maryland to visit for a few days during his leave. Things look good for that working out, but pray that all the details would be taken care of. I know it would mean the world to Aaron and Ryan to be able to spend some time together.
More tonight, and possibly a family member letter posted during the day if I can get to it. Have a good Monday, and leave Aaron some encouragement for his first day of therapy.

Here is something that Mom gave me to post before I left home this weekend. Mom, just so y'all know, is back home in Mississippi now, after three weeks in Maryland. Dad and the girls are ecstatic to have her back. I'm sure they'll be celebrating Mom Appreciation Week for the next few days. Please continue to keep Mom in your prayers. She really needs to rest after what has been an exhausting few weeks. With that, here is what she wrote to y'all:

Dearest and loved family and friends:
Please know that we have all been richly nourished by your many prayers on our behalf. I hope soon to be able to write some words here in keeping with such lovely things as have already been put down.
For now, I wanted to share a song by Mo Leverett which holds more meaning for me at the moment than my own thoughts are capable of.
A debtor to all in Christ,
Debbie.

Things Disguised
by Mo Leverett

"Brokeness makes pure my heart, as slowly it refines the rotten views that plague me so and rest within my mind.
Sadness is a treasure found, for then it is my chore to leave my old and weary way and search for something more.
Weakness, it defines the Strength in Whom I hope and trust. For Christ has breathed new breath in me and changed to gold my dust.
Poverty crowns my head and seeks to change my mind. It teaches me of priceless truths and riches God designed.
All these things are things disguised, for few have seen their worth. But I will hold them dear to me until I leave this earth."

Editorial note from Haley: For those of y'all who don't know, Mo Leverett is an ordained PCA pastor who is the founder of Desire Street Ministries, a work devoted to reclaiming and revitalizing the Desire neighborhood in the heart of New Orleans. In 1990, when Mo and his family moved to begin this work, the centerpiece of the neighborhood was the very large Desire Street housing project, which, at the time, was ranked as the worst in the country, a place of extreme violence and poverty. The project buildings themselves have since been condemmed by the government and torn down in order for new buildings to be raised, but the surrounding neighborhood is still one of great need. Over 14 years, the focus of Mo and DSM has been to raise up Christian leaders from within this community who are committed to seeing the neighborhood become a place of hope and peace through the spreading of the gospel of Christ. The physical ministry has grown to include a church, a ministry center, a school, and, I believe, a medical clinic.
In addition to this life's work, Mo is also a very talented musician who has produced multiple albums of songs that deal with everything from the reigning superiority of New Orleans to all other towns in the South to issues of poverty, and violence and the hope of God's redemption in the midst of so much darkness.
I was privileged to be an intern at Desire in the summer of 2000 and I have never seen life in quite the same way since. For more information about DSM or Mo's music, both of which are well worth your money and your time, visit www.desirestreet.org.

Below is posted a column that I recently wrote. But first, here is a long disclaimer about how this column came to be and why you poor, innocent people are being subjected to it at this time:
Every few weeks, the editor of the newspaper where I work has the bad judgement to give me a turn to write a personal column that runs in our Lifestyles section. Usually, I write funny, lighthearted things because I don’t have a lot of really serious or deeply personal points I am dying to discuss in front of our 20,000 readers. That’s because of an odd and little-known truth about the kind of people who go into print journalism: Although we are willing to write things that thousands of people will read, we actually tend to be kind of an introverted and shy bunch. Go ahead and laugh, but it’s true. The kids who grew up to write for a living were most likely nerds who spent a lot of time listening to other people’s conversations and feeling vaguely out of place at parties and stayed up all night in the campus newspaper office. Journalism is the only thing that enables us to feel confident going up to total strangers and asking questions. It’s almost like having a superhero alter ego. Outside of that framework, we’re basically the same geeky, shy kids we always were. (I’m pretty sure this doesn’t hold true for people who go into TV news, but that’s not even remotely the same thing.)
My point is that because of this tendency, writing something about your personal life in the newspaper is a little bit more frightening than writing about anything else. It’s like putting a piece of yourself out in the public eye to be scrutinized and maybe laughed at. So if it’s too personal, you tend to withold it.
But there are also moments when you just have to write about something. When we first learned that Aaron was going to Iraq, I wrote about that, and because of the column, a great many people in the community where I cover schools and government let me know that they were going to be praying for our family. Because of their love and support for me, practically a stranger, it only seemed natural to write a column about what has now happened.
Aaron read the column during our trip to Parris Island and claimed that he loved it, although he may have been lying just to humor me. He also insisted that I post it here. So, if you cry and short out your keyboard, or find something in this column totally objectionable, know that it is Aaron’s fault that you ever had to read it in the first place. The column is always called People and Places and it was originally printed in the Valencia County News-Bulletin in New Mexico on April 2, 2005. Also, for the sake of accuracy, when I wrote the column I still thought I would be going to see Aaron in Bethesda instead of at Parris Island.
Enjoy. I’ll have something real for you to read posted here as soon as possible.

People and Places
By Haley Wachdorf
News-Bulletin Staff Writer

Friday, March 18, was just another day for me. I came to work, wrote a story, went to a school to take some photos, and then went home. I remember that I was in a really happy mood as I was driving down Highway 47 looking at the beautiful countryside and thinking about all the little errands I needed to take care of on Saturday.
I didn’t know that at that very moment on the other side of the world, my brother was gravely injured, lying in a building west of Baghdad waiting for the fighting around him to subside enough that a helicopter could land and take him to a hospital.
It has been about six months since my family learned that Aaron, one of my two Marine brothers, would be deployed to Iraq. Since he left in January, I think each member of my family has visualized what would happen if we ever had to hear news telling us that Aaron had been killed in combat. It’s a morbid thing to do, but somehow it’s impossible not to think about it.
In my vision of that moment I hoped would never come, I knew that I would be told on the phone, most likely by my mother, and that I would know something terrible had happened immediately, because my mother would be crying.
On Saturday morning, just as I was starting in on my second cup of coffee, the phone rang. My husband answered it. He handed the phone to me. It was my mom, and she was crying.
Some people claim that when you get close to dying, your life flashes before your eyes. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that in the moment when I thought Aaron was dead, it was like someone had flipped a switch that turned off all the lights in the world and started a rapid-fire series of images in my mind.
Instead of my kitchen cabinets, which were inches from my face, I saw Aaron when we were little, clinging to the top of the magnolia tree in our yard with his twin brother, Ryan. I saw them walking in front of me on the way to school on cool fall mornings, starting off at a casual walk and then eventually breaking out into a full run, racing one another to the stop sign at the end of our street. I saw them dangling their skinny, tanned legs out of the window of our two-story playhouse, daring one another to jump out into the summer twilight. I saw them land safely and roll around in the grass, holding their sides in hysterical laughter at their brush with gravity.
Then I tried to picture it all without Aaron. Ryan without his brother and best friend Aaron. Kelly, Aaron’s beautiful wife, without Aaron. I tried to see our big loud family, with our marathon meals and poker games and fireworks and inside jokes and constant laughter, only with four kids instead of five.
This is the moment when the nightmare comes true for some families, and my heart breaks for them.
But for me, a few seconds after that moment, the words my mom was saying to me suddenly turned into English again, and I realized that Aaron was alive. The Humvee he was driving in Iraq struck an improvised explosive device planted by insurgents, and Aaron was injured in the explosion. His leg had to be amputated below the knee after he was taken to Germany by helicopter.
It’s not good news. The idea that someone would lie in wait to hurt or kill someone you love so much is absolutely hateful. Knowing that my brother will have to go through life without his leg makes me sad.
But I’m thankful that we don’t have to go through life without him.
In the next week or so, I’m going to travel to National Naval Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to see Aaron. He is recuperating marvelously and will be learning to walk with a prosthetic leg soon.
When I see him, I’m not sure if I’m going to hug him or beat him senseless with hospital pillows for frightening all of us so much, but I know that I’m going to talk to him for hours and hours.
Because I still can.

I'm sure there are families that would just breeze through a 13 hour one-way trip in the car as if it were as easy as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I'm sure these families also regularly drive across the surface of the moon in their sugar-powered space cars to pick up their pet dinosaurs from the galactic pet groomers. But here in this universe, that is one long car ride, I don't care who you're with. The trip to Parris Island wasn't so bad on the way out, in the daylight. But on the way back, as we drove across Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi from 5:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., on a route that included one of dad's famous "shortcuts" to avoid driving through Atlanta, a level of delerium was reached in that Chevy Suburban that I hope never to experience again. Mom and I collapsed into hysterical laughter over absolutely nothing around 2 a.m. in the highly questionable bathroom of an equally-questionable gas station in Alabama. It's laugh or fall asleep at the wheel. So we laughed.
Aside from the trip back, the rest of the Parris Island invasion went very well. Dad and Hannah and Audrey and I arrived in Savannah at about 10 p.m., just in time to pick up Aaron, Kelly and Mom from the airport. It was so good to see them. Aaron really looks great, in spite of being thinner than I've seen him in a long time. He's even got this chic hollowed out cheeks look going. If you're familiar with our family at all, you know we have cheeks of a size that defies explanation, so I take that as a sign that Aaron has really lost some weight. Although I'm sure I'd lose weight, too, if I had to eat hospital food.
On Thursday morning, we loaded up and went to Family Day, where the new Marines are presented with their Eagle, Globe and Anchors and then given liberty for about 6 hours to go out with their families. This is when the surreality started. I mentioned that we had been told that we were going to be seated in some sort of VIP area. What they didn't tell us was that the story of Ryan enlisting after Aaron was on his way to Iraq and then Aaron being injured but still making it to Ryan's graduation from basic training had taken on a life of its own, circulating through the Marine world at a rapid pace. The result was that every third person we encountered, it seemed, knew who we were. We did, indeed, sit in VIP seating, where we met some actual VIPs, including Brigadier General Richard Tryon, the commanding officer for Parris Island and various other military officials all of whom were very, very kind to us. Then the recruits started marching in, and we started looking for Ryan. We eventually picked him out of the crowd, although we were somewhat thrown off by the military-issued glasses he was wearing, which were not flattering to say the least. Check them out:

Because Ryan is going to absolutely kill me when he finds out I put that photo up, here is a photo of him with his usual contact lenses restored. He's very, very handsome, ladies.

We got to hug Ryan and were standing around talking when the boys started being approached by reporters. It was kind of fun for me, as a reporter, to stand back and watch other people do what I do all the time. We were there for an hour while the boys did interviews for print, television and radio media outlets. For some reason, we all kept taking pictures while this was going on. I'm sure the TV people wanted to choke us for making their footage look like there was a strobe light pulsating in the background the whole time. But take it from me, you can't choke the family of the people you're interviewing, so we survived. Then we were sent over to the Public Affairs office for the Island, and the boys did an interview and photos for their newspaper as well. The public affairs officer who conducted the interview is planning to let us know how we can see copies of that article when it comes out ... the others we have no idea about, but we'll give you all links to them if we find out how.
Before we left the offices, we also met the Marine mascot bulldog. Here are Kelly and Audrey instructing the dog on how to salute them.

Then, I am pleased to report, we went out and ate some of the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life. Say what you want about our family, but we take our eating very seriously, and I think the people at the place we went called Traditions probably wished they had charged us a more extravagant fee when they saw the sheer volume of food we consumed, all while talking. It was a shocking display of bad manners, and it was great fun. We learned that on the rifle range, Ryan scored high enough to be a "Rifle Expert," the highest score ranking, I think. When Aaron was in basic training, he scored one level below that. I find it amusing that in spite of their apparently deadly shooting skills, the boys and Dad have come home empty-handed from the majority of their deer hunts over the years.
Then Ryan had to go back to his barracks (is that the right word, Marine people?) for the night and we all went back to our hotel. After taking naps that we really, really needed, most of us gathered up in one of the hotel rooms and talked for a long time. It was really encouraging to me to talk to Aaron. I'm the only one who hadn't so far, besides Ryan, so it was really good for me. He is doing very well, like I've been telling all of you, but it was nice to see that for myself. I also had fun with Kelly, because we always laugh together. I'm very impressed that Kelly has kept up her sense of humor in spite of joining our family. Perhaps we give her more material for humorous thoughts.
On Friday morning, we went to Ryan's official graduation ceremony, which was quite impressive. I've only personally been to one or two major military ceremonies in my life, and it always amazes me how they manage to get so many people to do the same thing all at once. A lot of practice, I suppose. Here are some photos we took after the graduation.

Aaron and Ryan

A very suspicious group of people: Aaron, Ryan, Audrey, Hannah, and Haley.

Since the boys looked so very handsome and manly, we had them pose for a few photos. Here is one of those photos: Notice their very serious Marine-like expressions.

And, finally, the whole family, minus my husband Dan. A beautiful sight to behold, if I do say so myself.

Also as part of the celebrity treatment, several former drill instructors of Aaron's and other DIs on the Island asked Aaron to speak to their current platoons of recruits about his experiences in Iraq. Aaron gave them what was really a very good speech considering that the first one he was asked to do was very impromptu. By the third speech, he had it down to a science, and really told the recruits some good things about how what they are learning in basic will be important in a combat situation. Aaron was really honored to be asked, and I think he enjoyed the opportunity to make recruits yell "Aye, Sir!" at him repeatedly until he was convinced that they had screamed as loud as was humanly possible.
You can see from the photos that the trip was a lot of fun, and well worth the long drive. We're all so proud of Ryan, and it was so good to have the whole family together. We are thankful to the folks at Parris Island for making us feel so welcome, and to all of y'all for praying for our safe travel. I'm hoping to talk to Aaron later tonight and found out how his day went, but I'm sure I've posted more than enough material here to keep you busy reading for a long time. Until tomorrow, then. Goodnight.

I think we're now up to a record-breaking five blog posts in one day, but we need y'all to pray about something tonight. Aaron has had a bit of a setback in terms of his recuperation. At his examination today, his doctors found that although a majority of the skin that covers what he affectionately refers to as his "stump" has done well, a portion of that skin that had formerly appeared to be bruised is now dead skin. They had hoped it would heal and regenerate itself, but it didn't happen. Tomorrow morning, Aaron will have to have a surgery to remove that dead skin. He will spend several days recuperating from that and allowing the newly-exposed area to be cared for, and then he will have to have some skin removed from his thigh to make a skin graft. The whole process, we're told, will take three weeks to a month depending on how well he heals. This is very dissapointing, because Aaron had hoped to be able to begin his physical therapy at Walter Reed today, and now he has been readmitted to Bethesda Naval. In the grand scheme of things, this actually just means that Aaron is now going to be spending closer to the usually allotted amount of time to heal. Six weeks or so is average; Aaron was only injured three weeks ago. But it is frustrating to Aaron, who is getting very tired of being in a wheelchair all the time and just wants to walk. Please pray that God and the people around Aaron would be an encouragement to Aaron in spite of this bad news. Please also pray that Aaron's surgery tomorrow morning will go well. He will be under general anesthesia, and I will let you all know as soon as he comes out of surgery.
Thank you. We love you all.

Aaron had his surgery this morning and is awake now. Mom said when she talked to Kelly, Aaron was in some pain, so pray that they'll manage to get that under control soon. I'll try to call Kelly myself tonight and post more information. Thank you all for your prayers. And, by the way, I am also going to try to sort out with Kelly what would be the best way to get mail to she and Aaron right now. Plans have changed a bit in that they planned to be at Walter Reed and are now back at Bethesda, so bear with us and we'll get you a new address soon.
Thanks to all of you. Please keep praying.

Hey folks.
I just talked to Kelly, and, briefly, Aaron. He's been out of anesthesia since around noon, and unfortunately, he's still in a lot of pain. When he was in the surgery to remove the dead skin from his amputation site, his doctors also did some work on the sizable gash Aaron has on his right foot. It has been stitched up for a couple of weeks, and they needed to go in and remove some dead tissue from the cut to make sure it doesn't get infected. This didn't sound like all that big of a deal since Aaron really hasn't complained much about the pain from the amputation, much less the cut on his foot, so we didn't expect it to be very bad. But as it turns out, it is extremely painful. Aaron's doctors have given him a regular dose of morphine on top of his usual regiment of painkillers, but it doesn't seem to be making much of a dent in his pain. Tonight, please give us all the prayers you can for Aaron's pain to diminish so that he can sleep. From what the doctors are saying, it may continue to hurt him for the next several days, and if that's true, this is going to be an unpleasant week. Please also pray for Kelly. I know it is hard on her to see Aaron in pain. Pray for the rest of us while you're at it, and leave us some encouragement in the comments section. We could certainly use it.
Aaron told me to call him back later tonight because he wants to talk. I'll post a report after I talk to him then.
Thank you.

I just talked to Aaron and he isn't in very much pain anymore. That's a huge relief. It turns out that the reason he was in so much pain wasn't because of the procedure, but because after he had the procedure on his foot, someone got a little overzealous with an ACE bandage and wrapped his foot up so tight that he had no circulation to his foot and it started swelling. Aaron said once they loosened up the bandage, the pain went away instantly. It's good to know that Aaron doesn't have to expect that level of pain for the next few days. Now we should just pray for him to sleep tonight and also pray for mercy for whoever tries to put an ACE bandage on him next. I have a feeling they're going to be getting some in-depth supervision from their patient.
Goodnight, y'all. Thank you for praying. At least the mistake was figured out before Aaron spent the whole night in pain.

Drum roll, please: Here's how to get mail to Aaron for the next month or so.

Lcpl Aaron Rice (or Mrs. Kelly Rice)
Bethesda Navy Lodge
Bldg #52
8901 Wisconsin Ave. Rm. 107
Bethesda, MD 20889

Also an excerpt from a note Kelly sent with the address.
"As of 11:01 pm on Tuesday, Aaron is doing awesome. Pain is a 0 on a scale of 1-10. Praise God. Love you!
Until tomorrow,
your sister-in-law."

I'm so proud of my sister-in-law.
Send mail, everybody.

When I spoke with Aaron just now he was highly chapped because his doctors and nurses have declared him to be on "bed rest" and got on his case for having left his room in a wheelchair without permission a few times yesterday. The technical definition of "bed rest," it turns out, is that you are supposed to STAY IN BED. Aaron has been known to have bouts of selective hearing in the past, and it seems that he is still trying to negotiate the terms of his confinement to include occasional jaunts in his wheelchair. However, it sounds like the doctors are standing pretty firm on this, and he is coming to grips with the fact that he is pretty much going to have to stay in his bed for most of the next few days. Kelly is bringing his X-box to him, and he is going to get all set up to watch lots of movies and play lots of video games. Pray that Aaron will have the patience to follow his doctors' orders and that the time will pass quickly for him.
One of the odd things you learn when a family member spends a long period of time in a military hospital is that there are constantly celebrities and other people of note parading through the halls just to visit troops. Case in point: since Aaron has been at Bethesda, he has met Miss USA (Or Miss America. I'm not up on my vital pageant statistics.) an aspiring country singer from Nashville who performed two songs for him, and, today, the New England Patriots. Aaron had just finished talking to them when I called. So depending on how you feel about the Patriots, Miss America and country music, you should either be jealous of Aaron or feel sorry for him.
Aaron said he hasn't been in any pain today, which is great, and thank you all so much for praying for him yesterday. Please keep praying.
More tonight.

Aaron is still playing his X-box and hating bed rest. But he had some diversion today even after the visit from the Patriots when various military officials came by to visit troops, and he enjoyed visiting with them. Also, I forgot to mention that on Monday, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and Mississippi's First Lady Marsha Barbour came to visit Aaron and Kelly. Aaron worked on Governor Barbour's gubernatorial campaign in 2003, and it was a great experience for him. The Governor brought along Ryan Annison and Joe Cloyd, both friends of Aaron's from the campaign who, I believe, now work on the Governor's staff in Jackson. Aaron really enjoyed talking to all of them, and we really appreciate them taking time out of their extremely busy schedules to spend some time with Aaron and Kelly. I know it brightened his spirits. Probably even more than meeting Miss America. Very probably.
Please pray tonight that Aaron will be able to sleep well tonight and that tomorrow will provide him with some entertainment so that the bed rest is more bearable. Thanks.

As you all know, I (Kelly) have taken on the responsibility of keeping you updated with everything happening on our side of the world, for a few days at least. Congratulations Haley and Dan on your anniversary, I hope U2 gives you the same VIP treatment Parris Island did and I can only hope that Aaron and I are as happy as y'all are after two years of marriage.
Well, on this absolutely perfect Thursday afternoon, Aaron continues to sit patiently in his hospital room keeping himself busy with Halo 2, his newfound love. Halo 2 is an addicting X box video game for those of you not familiar with this form of entertainment. Aaron's doctor came in this morning and said everything looks great and has scheduled a skin graft for Monday morning. Maybe we should all start praying early for this procedure because we've heard from other Marines it is very painful. It is supposed to feel like a really bad sunburn and is supposed to hurt pretty bad for about five days. Aaron is not very worried about it though. I guess after losing a leg, he can handle a sunburn. We've learned to laugh at the situation and make it funny. We always make jokes about how I never have to worry about his mismatched socks and I only have one foot to massage, so really this is a good thing.
A special visitor is scheduled to arrive this evening, and that is Ryan. He is flying into Washington D.C. tonight and will stay until Monday, I believe. I have warned him that sitting around in a hospital room is surprisingly not very entertaining, but I know he just wants to sit and talk to Aaron and exchange boot camp stories. I can't wait to see the way Aaron shows Ryan off to every person in this hospital. They are so proud of each other and it is going to take a powerful force of nature to separate them on Monday.
On a side note, there is a dinner tonight honoring heroes at Lone Star Restaurant, so at least we get to dodge hospital food for a change. I made Aaron's doctor promise me we would be able to go, regardless of whether he was on bed rest or not. So Aaron had to promise his doctor he would be a good Marine and not get out of bed until it was time to leave tonight. A change of scenery is always a good thing.
We still have not really been given a time frame of how long we will be here, but we are guessing at least another six to eight weeks to ensure adequate rehab time. Please pray for patience, especially during this waiting period. We can't wait to get home. But as of today, everything is great. Aaron is in very little pain, if any, and is trying to keep himself busy until Ryan gets here. I will try to get ya'll at least two updates a day while Haley is gone, so keep checking up on us and please continue sending comments!

I have to apologize for only writing one update yesterday. It was pretty late when we got back to the hospital and I pretty much crashed because we ate as if it were our last meal ever. We are pretty sure Lone Star will never invite 15 Marines back for a free dinner again.
As it turns out, Ryan did not make it in time to eat with us but he was waiting for us when we got back. I am still amazed every time I look at him because he really looks like a Marine. The pictures do not do justice. I guess unless you've been surrounded by Marines for the past few weeks you might not understand, but you would think Ryan has been a Marine a lot longer than one week. Don't worry, he is still a very goofy Ryan Rice. It's going to take a lot more than 13 weeks of boot camp to wipe that goofy grin off his face. But he still wants everybody to know he's a "hardcharger devildog." In the few hours I have been around the Rice boys today, I learned how to make a quick peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the Drill Instructors seeing me and how to get my hummer in perfect condition for a convoy, and everything between. In other words, there is no need to wonder what the conversation has been about.
I think they started getting a little antsy talking about war and the Marine Corps, so they decided to blow some steam and play Halo 2 together. That was my cue to leave the room and let them be boys.
We have had a few more visitors lately which have made the time pass quickly. The Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps came by yesterday to talk to Aaron again. This time around, Aaron was much more alert and told them his plans for the future, which is to stay in the Marine Corps and go through OCS (Officer Candidate School) to become an officer. This is a rigorous 12 weeks of physical training, and no Marine has ever gone through with a prosthetic that we know of. Leave it to Aaron to make history.
Today will be a very relaxing day, hopefully. Ryan makes everything so fun. I'm especially grateful he is here while Aaron is chained (not literally) to his bed.
Well I'm going to cut it short right here so there might be something to write about later today. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Another exciting day at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
Today has been lazy but somehow it seemed to have flown by. I guess that's a good thing. Last night we were invited to another dinner honoring the injured Marines. We have become good friends with the other Marines here on the fifth floor. We have sort of created a family environment around here because most of the Marines and their families "graduated" from ICU and moved up to the fifth floor around the same time. Aaron has become a huge motivator to other guys, especially to those who have lost limbs.
On Thursday, we were visited by Representative Gene Taylor from Mississippi. Not only did he bring Aaron a big bucket of shrimp, he also brought Aaron the opportunity to intern for him in Washington D.C. while he is finishing his rehab at Walter Reed. Aaron will receive college credit for this and hands on experience, which can only be extremely beneficial to his future career in politics. Shrimp is good, internship -- priceless.
Today has involved lots of Xbox, several trips to McDonalds, naps and plans to order pizza and watch Napolean Dynamite tonight, probably quoting every word of it the whole way through because we are Rices and we do that kind of thing a lot.
I am pretty anxious about the skin graft on Monday, but Aaron is ready. After this procedure, he is on a straight path to complete recovery and will be ready in no time to throw that new leg on and get back to Mississippi. When exactly that will be, we don't know. What I do know is that no matter where Aaron is in his rehab process, we will be in Corinth, Miss., on June 4 for my roommate Megan's wedding. Don't worry Megan, I would not miss it for the world. Supposedly there is an engagement bug in my old apartment because every girl who has ever lived there has either gotten engaged or married not too long after moving in.
Going back to the Rice boys, Ryan has definitely provided us entertainment since he arrived. No matter how long he and Aaron are separated, they pick up right where they left off. Just to keep you all updated on Ryan, he is leaving here Monday evening and on Tuesday morning he is flying out of New Orleans to Camp Geiger, North Carolina for MCT (Marine Combat Training). MCT is three weeks of intense training out in the field. Marines love it. From there, he will report to 29 Palms, California for six weeks of training in Field Communication School. Hopefully by August we will all be back in Starkville, Mississippi together.
Please continue to pray for Aaron's strength and patience. We all know there is nothing stopping him, but we have been told to expect some frustrating times. For now, I will leave you with some wise words from Aaron. "I know this was in God's plan, so who am I to ask 'why me?' There is a reason for all of this and I'm not going to let it stop me from doing what I want to do."
Kelly.

A note from Haley: Kelly has been great about keeping you all updated by emailing me while I am in Arizona. I have then been posting her updates whenever I have time and Internet access. The Internet access part has been sketchy ... Phoenix, Arizona sounds like a technologically with it place, but you'd be surprised. Anyway, just to give you all some warning, Dan and I will be traveling back to Albuquerque tomorrow and unless I can post something before we leave for the airport around 11 a.m., then there won't be anything to read until Sunday evening. Thanks for your patience, and thanks again to Kelly. I'm going to give her her own byline on the site: Kelly Rice, Bethesda Correspondent. Goodnight, y'all.

Haley here. Sorry for the break in posts. Dan and I got into town last night and I haven't heard from Kelly since then. I am hoping to talk to her soon. I am pretty sure that today has been very busy, because Aaron was scheduled to have his skin graft done sometime today. Until we have more information, please pray for that. As Kelly told y'all, it is supposed to be a very painful thing to have done, and it means that Aaron really really can not get out of bed for several days because the graft has to be treated very carefully so that it will work. Please pray that Aaron's pain will be as minimal as possible and that this procedure will be succesful. We'd like to just go through this the one time and have it over with.
On a less important note, our trip was great, but today I am home sick with what I have been told is some strange variant of strep throat. This is nasty stuff, y'all, so while you're praying for Aaron, pray for me. I don't really have time to be sick. I keep telling Dan this like he's going to be able to snap his fingers and make me not sick anymore. I do, at least, have prescription drugs now, so I am preparing to crash in a haze of Kleenex and Gatorade and hope to feel better in a couple of days.
More on Aaron soon.

Well, the good news is that Aaron is out of surgery and he's not in a lot of pain. The bad news is that he didn't have his skin graft done today after all. Aaron needed to be under general anesthesia anyway because the doctors were doing another "washout," where dead tissue is removed from his wounds, but once they finished with that, they decided that they want to wait a few more days before going ahead with the graft. It's OK, because we want them to do it right when they do it, but it adds a couple more days on to the whole process. Right now, it's looking like the graft may be done on Wednesday, so pray that Aaron will continue to heal up and be ready for it then.
Aaron told me that Ryan left Bethesda today, which is sad news for Aaron. But Aaron said they had a great visit, and I think it was really good for Aaron to have Ryan there at least part of the time he's stuck in bed. Aaron and Ryan can do some serious talking, and after such a long separation, I'm sure they had a lot to cath up on. I told Kelly I thought she should slip out during one of their Marine discussions and take herself shopping or get a massage, but I don't know if she followed my advice.
Pray for Ryan, who is probably in the air now on a flight home to Jackson. He's got to get back down to Hattiesburg, pack up, and then leave very early in the morning to catch his flight for Marine Combat Training in North Carolina. Pray that he won't be too tired, because MCT is supposed to be very physically demanding, although Aaron assured me it's also "a lot of fun." I think Aaron and I may have widely divergent ideas of what constitutes "fun," but that is why I am not a Marine.
I think that's it for tonight. Thanks, y'all.

Mom and Dad sent me a CD with their photos from the trip to Parris Island. I thought y'all might enjoy seeing some of them.

Here we have the Rice Men, Ryan, Daddy and Aaron. Dad wanted the boys to salute him. I don't think any agreement was reached on that issue, but they did agree to all smile for a photo together. Or at least as much as manly men ever smile.

Here is a photo of Ryan (right) and Micah Brooks (left). Micah is a friend of ours from church, and he and Ryan ended up in the same group of recruits at basic training. It was fun to see the Brooks family at Parris Island for all the festivities, and I know they are very proud of Micah.

This photo is of Mom and I hugging Ryan right after he the graduation ceremonies were dismissed. We were in the second row of seats, and since there were various military dignitaries seated in the front row, we didn't think it would be appropriate to just hop over the chairs.

Other miscellaneous photos include Kelly and Aaron at the airport on their way to Parris Island:

Kelly and the big strong Marines. Kelly, myself, Hannah and Audrey are fond of telling people that we have two Marines in the family. It's kind of like having your own security detail if you ever need it.

This is Aaron with his former drill instructor Staff Seargeant Cuellar. Aaron was really pleased to visit with him and be asked to speak to his current group of recruits.

Anyway, just thought those might be fun for all of you to see.

Again, I apologize that this update comes so late in the day. I went back to work today for the first time since the Strep Throat-Like Debacle, but I am still kind of a weenie because of having been sick and being on antibiotics, so I'm embarrassed to say that I then came home and took a two-hour nap before I got around to calling Aaron.
Aaron did not have his skin graft today. It looks like he will have that done on Friday. His doctors did change the very elaborate dressing that is involved in these types of wounds and said that everything looks like he will be in good shape to have the graft done on Friday. Please pray that he will be ready for it then and that it will go well.
In the meantime, Aaron had another exciting day of bedrest. He is behaving himself very well, so please pray that his patience will continue. When I called, Aaron and Kelly were watching their wedding video, because today is the five-month anniversary of their wedding. Cheers to that, and to many more anniversaries to come. Also, in a few weeks, Mom and Dad will celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary, so we will continue to post the Rice Family Anniversary Updates as they arrive. I'll see if I can dig up some nice photos of Mom and Dad in 1970s attire. Maybe some bell-bottoms or something. They will love me for that.
I'm not sure if anyone has heard from Ryan yet, but I know that he is very busy, so please just pray that he will get the rest he needs and be safe.
I think that's all for tonight. In a slightly off-beat note, Kelly and Aaron mentioned that they have developed an addiction to gummy candies. You know, Gummi Bears, Gummi Worms, things along those lines. So I wouldn't advise you to clean out Wal-Mart's candy aisle or anything, but if you're sending them something anyway, feel free to send them gummy candy. We want them to keep their sugar levels up while they're sitting around in the hospital.
I think that's all for tonight. Again, thank you all so much for your faithfulness in checking this site and praying for us.

Just a short note on Aaron tonight. As far as we know, Aaron's skin graft surgery is still on for tomorrow. Please pray that Aaron and Kelly will get a good night's sleep tonight and that tomorrow the surgery will happen and go well. The sooner this is over, the sooner Aaron can heal up and get on to learning to walk. But this is going to be a challenge in and of itself, and we really need your prayers for Aaron. At this point, I'm not sure what time Aaron's skin graft surgery will take place, but I'll post whatever I know as I know it tomorrow.
Tonight, I wanted to give you all an update on Mom and her health concerns. Dad reminded me a few days ago that I kind of left all of you hanging about that. I apologize. Just to recap, before Aaron was hurt, Mom was having some trouble shaking a respiratory infection/cough type thing. She had been on a lot of different medications without really improving and was having asthma-like attacks that made it hard for her to breathe at all. She had just been referred to a specialist when Aaron was hurt, so she was not able to go to her appointment. Her general practitioner in Hattiesburg had told her that he thought she had developed a temporary stress-related form of asthma, and he gave her a few medications to help her during her time in Maryland. She had a tough time in Maryland and had at least one night when she couldn't sleep because of coughing, but she started improving a little towards the end.
Right after Mom went back home to Hattiesburg two weeks ago, she was able to see a pulmonary specialist who agreed with the general practitioner's opinion. He said that Mom likely developed stress-triggered asthma in recent months as a complication of her original respiratory illness and ... well, you know, all the STRESS. He said she seemed to have been treated very well by her general practitioner and that he expects her condition will improve on its own now that things are somewhat calmer. ("Calm" is kind of a relative term for us right now, but I guess that's just to be expected.) He plans to see her again in a few weeks just to make sure she is still improving, but Mom said she can tell she is doing much better since she's been back home, and we're very thankful to God for that. Mom also asked me to thank all of you for praying for her so faithfully. Please pray that she will continue to improve. Each of us has had different needs during this whole thing, and it's been so encouraging to see how you've all been willing to pray for those things and help us in any way you can. It's really just overwhelming how God has blessed us through your love and prayers. Thank you.
Again, please pray for Aaron's surgery tomorrow, and you'll hear from me tomorrow.

I just heard from Mom, and she said that Aaron's surgery was at 10 a.m. this morning, and it went very well. Aaron was heavily drugged up when Mom spoke to him, but he told her that his surgeons had told him afterwards that the grafting process went very well and they believe he'll be on his way soon if it heals without any complications. He was in some pain in spite of the medication, so pray that it will subside and that the next couple of days won't be too bad for him. Thank you all for your prayers today. I hope this is the last time they'll have to put Aaron under completely because that's always a little scary, but even if it isn't, I'm glad this is behind him. Again, pray that his pain won't be too severe and that he will heal quickly and without complication. I probably won't talk to Aaron tonight, but I hope to sometime tomorrow.
In other news, Kelly's dear friend, Nikki, is visiting Aaron and Kelly this weekend, which I am sure is a great encouragement for Kelly. Pray that they'll have some good time together and that they won't keep each other up all night talking. Somehow I think there will be a lot of talking done, but that's not a bad thing.
Have a nice Friday night, y'all. I'm off to take care of my husband, who has come down with the same nasty sickness that I had earlier this week. Pray for Dan and that he will have mercy on me even though I gave this to him. He has become very paranoid and is constantly accusing me of leaning over him in his sleep and breathing my germs on him intentionally. I think he's kidding, but you never know.
Goodnight.

There are several reasons I haven't written a lot about Aaron this weekend, but the main one is that Aaron has been catching up on his sleep in a big way. According to Kelly, and Mom, who talked to Aaron on Saturday, Aaron slept something like nine hours today and a long time on Saturday, too. That's good for several reasons, not least the fact that if he's sleeping, he's not wasting away from boredom while he's on bedrest. It's not really surprising that he's slept so much given that he's been under general anesthesia three times in the last week or so, and that takes a toll on your body. It's also encouraging that he's been able to sleep a lot, because it means he's not in too much pain to sleep. Low levels of boredom and pain are answers to prayers.
I had a nice talk with Kelly today shortly after her friend Nikki left to go back home to Mississippi. It sounds like she and Kelly had a really good time together, and while Aaron slept, Kelly was able to get out and have some good girl time, much needed I'm sure. Spending a month in a hospital filled with Marines could get to be a bit of a testosterone overload.
Kelly also had good news to report, which is that Aaron's doctors say if Aaron continues to heal well, he will be able to check out of Bethesda on Wednesday and move on to Walter Reed. Aaron is going to be admitted to Walter Reed as an inpatient, which isn't fun in that it means he has to stay in a hospital room, but there is hope that he won't have to stay inpatient the whole time. Please pray that Aaron's skin graft will keep healing like it should and that he can check out of Bethesda soon. Please also pray that Aaron can become an outpatient as soon as possible. As much as that would make Aaron happy, I think it would also be really comforting to Kelly to have him with her on the outside of the hospital. Right now, she kind of orbits between his hospital room and her hotel room, and I'm sure that's getting old. Kelly is amazingly upbeat about it, but I know I wouldn't like staying in a hotel without Dan for so long.
Kelly and I also had a long talk about how much we both miss home food. One of the reasons that both Kelly and Dan have fit so well into the Rice family is that they both share one of my family's greatest passions: the love of good food. For those of you who haven't had the privilege of having Sunday lunch at my parents' house in Mississippi, my Dad makes the finest slow-cooked on the grill turkey dinner you could ever imagine in your wildest dreams, not to mention gumbo, shrimp curry, steaks and pork chops to die for. And my Mom makes potato salad that I pester her for every time I go home, and turnip greens, and corn bread that I dream about out here in the land of tortillas. And the sweet tea. Oh, the sweet tea. My point is that anywhere else in the country, there is no amount of money you could pay anyone to fix you that good a meal. They just aren't capable. I've known this for several years, but Kelly's recent exile to Maryland has opened her eyes to this truth as well. So we had a long chat about all the things we're going to eat next time we get home. I think we were both a little homesick by the time we got done talking. Homesick and hungry. I don't know what it says about me and Kelly as people that we can work ourselves into a state of absolute weepiness talking about food, but I think it's nice that we have this in common. Everyone should be so lucky.
I think that's it for tonight. Whenever Aaron wakes up, I'm planning to talk to him, and I'll pass on whatever I learn then. Thanks.

I'm starting to feel like I'm repeating myself here, but I talked to Aaron yesterday and he said he's been sleeping a lot. I believe him because he sounded tired even then. In fact, it's really funny when you talk to him because he does this thing where he starts to gets sleepy, but he thinks he can make himself stay awake and talk to you if he just tries hard enough. When you know Aaron, you know how much he likes to talk, so it's not all that surprising that he persists in spite of heavy narcotics. He did it one night on the trip to Parris Island and made us all laugh. We were talking, and he was really tired, and his eyes were closing and closing a little more every second, but he kept wanting to talk, so he would start saying something and then he would trail off and just never finish his sentence. Eventually, after one of these unfinished sentences, he jerked back awake and told us he he been dreaming about containers of artificial coffee creamer in the brief seconds he'd been asleep. I don't know if it was quite that bad when I was talking to him yesterday, but I could kind of picture him fighting to stay awake during our conversation. So there isn't really a lot to report except that it sounds like he's still doing well and should be cleared to be discharged from Bethesda some time in the next couple of days. He has a check-up scheduled for Wednesday, and at that time his doctors might clear him to leave Bethesda, but it would still probably take a couple of days to get all the paperwork cleared and for him to actually leave. In the meantime, Aaron is still having lots of visitors from a church in the area and an occasional visit from strangers with relatives in the hospital who tell Aaron that they have come to meet the "famous Lance Corporal Rice." I think all his nurses have just fallen in love with him and brag on him all over the hospital, because he's become a minor celebrity there. Aaron loves it, but we're going to get suspicious of the medical staff's motives if they start claiming some new reason he can't leave Bethesda in the next week or so.
I hope to talk to a more alert Aaron sometime today, and when I do, I'll let y'all know. Keep praying for Aaron and Kelly.

Sorry for the lack of updates on Aaron. Yesterday was kind of odd in that Aaron got moved to another room, and so he was hard to find. In fact, I never talked to him or Kelly yesterday, but I did hear from Mom, who clued me in to the room change. Apparently, a severely injured Marine needed Aaron's room because it was close to the nurse's station, so Aaron has moved down the hall a bit and again has a roomate. In theory, Aaron shouldn't be there for much longer. Mom said when she talked to Aaron and Kelly they told her that Aaron's evaluation to see how how he is healing up and decide if he can be checked out of Bethesda will be tomorrow, Friday. Please pray about this. If Aaron is healed up enough and his doctors think he has made enough progress, there's the possibility that Aaron could be admitted to Walter Reed as an outpatient. That would be really nice for Aaron and Kelly because then Aaron wouldn't have to stay in a hospital room and he could just go to the hospital for his appointments.
Aside from that, there's not much to report. As a matter of housekeeping, I would say that if you're planning to send Aaron and Kelly something in the mail, you might want to hang on to it for a few days since their address is probably about to change again, and your mail might not reach them before they leave Bethesda. As always, new addresses will be posted as soon as they're available.
We love y'all. Thanks for your prayers.

I spoke to Aaron this morning shortly after he got some very good news: He's been discharged from Bethesda! When I spoke to him he was doing all the paperwork and such that is required and expected to be out within a couple of hours. In even better news, he is being admitted to Walter Reed as an outpatient, which means he doesn't have to stay in a hospital room. He and Kelly can stay together at the Bethesda Naval Lodge, a hotel-type place. So, for the time being Aaron and Kelly's address will still be as follows:

Lcpl Aaron Rice (or Mrs. Kelly Rice)
Bethesda Navy Lodge
Bldg #52
8901 Wisconsin Ave. Rm. 107
Bethesda, MD 20889

Praise God with us for Aaron's progress to this point and his being allowed to leave the hospital room environment. Aside from medical issues, I think having to stay in bed for the last three weeks straight has been the most challenging part of all this for Aaron so far. I don't think the idea of learning to walk with a prosthetic even bothers Aaron at all, but the sitting around waiting to heal was really tough. He sounded very excited to be moving out of Bethesda, even though we're thankful for the care he's received there. Next week, Aaron should be havinig his first appointments at Walter Reed. Please pray that he and Kelly can have a nice relaxing weekend and get settled into their new environment in the meantime.
Thank you all so much. More soon.

On Saturday I told y'all that Aaron was discharged from Bethesda Naval Hospital and expected to be admitted to Walter Reed as an outpatient sometime this week. As far as we know, that's still the plan. However, there may be a problem, and we would appreciate your prayers about it. When I talked to Aaron on Sunday, he said that a small part of the skin graft that he had on his leg doesn't seem to be looking or acting quite like the rest of it. The majority of the graft is doing very well and taking on the look of healthy, normal skin, but a small section of it is peeling in kind of a strange way. The main doctor who is overseeing Aaron's care is going to take a look at the graft on Tuesday to see if that spot looks like it will be able to heal like they want it to without any further intervention from the doctors. That would be ideal. But there's also the possibility that they could have to do part of the skin graft again, which would mean that Aaron would be back in Bethesda and yet again on bedrest for another skin graft. If that's what has to happen for Aaron to heal, then it will have to happen. But obviously Aaron and all the rest of us would much prefer that he not have to go through all that again. Please pray for wisdom for Aaron's doctors so they can make the best possible decision if there is a tough decision to be made. Pray for the skin to heal on its own as much as possible, and please pray for Aaron and Kelly. This may not turn out to be anything that sets Aaron back, but at this point I'm pretty sure that even the thought of more time in Bethesda is very stressful to them. Like I said, Aaron told me that his doctor is supposed to take a look on Tuesday, so we'll keep everyone posted about that.
Aside from that, it sounded like Aaron and Kelly really had a great weekend. They were able to go to church for the first time since all of this happened, and Aaron said that was really encouraging. They met a lot of people at the church, saw a lot of people who have already been visiting Aaron in the hospital, and stayed for potluck dinner after the service, which I'm sure was a nice break from hospital food and fast food.
That's all for now. I think Aaron and Kelly have Internet access at the moment and may be dropping by to check out the site, so leave them a comment if you want to say hello. Thanks for all your prayers.

Everyone drop what you're doing and smile a big, happy smile.
Why? Because I'm happy to say that Aaron's release from Bethesda Naval is looking more and more like a permanent thing. I told you on Monday that there was some concern that part of the skin graft Aaron had at the site of his amputation might have to be repeated, a process that would mean he would be readmitted to Bethesda and put on bed rest for another several weeks. That was a depressing prospect to say the least. But today, Aaron's head doctor said that it looks like Aaron's skin graft is 60 percent "taken," meaning that 60 percent of the skin that was grafted on has taken root and begun to grow, and the 40 percent that didn't "take" should be able to heal on its own because of the healthy skin surrounding it. This is very, very good news. I know I've said it before, but the hardest part of this so far for Aaron has been the time he's had to spent just sitting in the hospital waiting to be well enough to move on to physical therapy. He still has some healing to do, but it's good to know that his doctors are confident that he's seen the last of the operating room for the time being. Please join us in thanking God for that.
When I spoke to Aaron, it sounded like he had an all-around encouraging day. In addition to knowing that he doesn't have to check back into the hospital, he was seen by a wound care specialist who he had not seen before. Aaron can't start physical therapy in earnest until all the skin on what he affectionately refers to as his "stump" is healed and healthy. In addition to that wound, he has had trouble with a big gash on his right foot. It had to be stitched up, and the place where it was stitched seems to have healed well enough, but the surrounding area has had trouble healing completely, which would also be a problem once he needs it to bear weight in therapy. The specialist has completely changed the way that his wounds are going to be treated and dressed, and seems to think she can have him in much better shape soon. It's been frustrating for Aaron because those wounds healed to a point and then hit kind of a plateua and didn't seem to be improving very much. But it sounds like this doctor knows her stuff, so there's reason to believe he'll be improving soon.
Tomorrow, Aaron will go to an appointment at Walter Reed and will start his therapy. Until he's healed up enough to start learning to walk, Aaron's therapy will probably consist of just building his strength and weight back up. We've all been telling Aaron that he's lost a lot of weight since the attack, but today he said he realized for the first time that we're right about that. He put on a pair of his pants that used to fit really snugly and realized that they now have to be cinched up with a belt just to stay on. He and Kelly think he's probably lost 20 to 30 pounds in this whole ordeal. Part of the reason for that is that the medications Aaron is on have killed his appetite, so his doctors have started encouraging him to drink protein shakes and eat small meals throughout the day to keep his nutrient levels up until his appetite returns. When that happens, Maryland better hide anything they don't want eaten. It's a well-known fact that you don't get between the Rices and food.
I hope this good news cheers all of you up as much as it has me. Rejoice with us, and I'll talk to you again tomorrow. We love you all.

I spoke to Aaron and Kelly today, and they have much good news to report. First off, they will be moving tomorrow. They're leaving the Bethesda Naval Lodge behind for nicer digs at the Malogne House, where they'll have a much nicer room and a cafeteria sponsored by the U.S. Army, which according to Aaron has much better food than any other branch of the service. For the sake of those of you who have sent mail in the last few days, Kelly is going to go by the Lodge for the next week or so to check and see if any mail has arrived for them since they left. I'll get a new address posted for them as soon as possible.
Aaron also had his first appointment at Walter Reed today and met a lot of other amputees and otherwise injured military men who Aaron will probably be seeing a lot of over the next few months. Most of them are much more badly hurt than Aaron was, but it does sound like his stay at Walter Reed will take longer than we originally thought. Aaron was told that the shortest stay the physical therapists there had seen for someone with similar injuries to Aaron's was four months. Also, Aaron has still got a lot of healing to do before he can really get started on his therapy. That's OK though, because the most important thing is for Aaron to heal properly and completely. Aaron said that his and Kellys "main objectives" at the moment are to move and to make friends at Walter Reed. I always laugh when Aaron talks like such a military man, but I think he's right about what their major goals should be right now. Please pray that their settling into the Malogne House will go well and that Aaron will make progress in his physical training in the time before he can start learning to walk with a prosthetic. Aaron said he could tell how much strength he's lost in all the time he's spent in bed, so it's important for him to build his strength back up. One piece of good news is that Aaron said there is a Dunkin Donuts in the lobby of Walter Reed on his way to his physical therapy appointments, and I'm sure that will help him gain some weight.
I told Aaron to call me as soon as they have a new phone number, so hopefully I'll be able to post something else tomorrow. Until then, please keep praying for Aaron and Kelly, and know that we love you all.

What a good feeling to have muffins and coffee and just generally not have to get in the car and rush off anywhere. Time really is the greatest luxury in the world since there's so little of it. This morning, I haven't got a lot to say, but I do have a new address for Aaron and Kelly that I thought everyone might want. They love their mail.

Lcpl Aaron Rice and Mrs. Kelly Rice
c/o The Malogne House Hotel
6900 Georgia Ave. NW Building 20
Room 162
Washington, D.C. 20307-5001

Since today is Saturday, I'm assuming that Aaron won't have therapy appointments, so I hope to talk to him later, and when I do I'll tell y'all what's going on. Until then, everyone enjoy your weekend.

I talked to Aaron this morning, and he told me that he was on his way out the door to email me some photos that a friend of his from his Mobile Assault Platoon had emailed to him. He told me they were pictures from Iraq and that some of them were of his Hummer after it was attacked.
Several years ago, when I was still in college, Ryan was in a really bad car accident on the two-lane road out to our house. His truck left the road and broke several small pine trees in half before it stopped. The truck was destroyed, and one of the pine trees fell down and knocked Ryan's left hand rearview mirror off a few seconds after the crash, when Ryan could have been trying to get out of the truck. It would have killed him. But he wasn't out of the truck yet. I remember that when I heard about that, I thought I was going to throw up. I think the little details of things sometimes frighten me more than the big picture. Ryan was in this horrible crash and survived it, and that's the big picture. But the thought of how close he was to being crushed by a tree after the impact gave me this sickening feeling of inertia, like on fair rides, like the world had stopped moving and I was still flying forward. I haven't had very many moments like that in my life, and I'm thankful. But I think it's in those moments when I have most realized how very much God has protected me and my family at every turn, both in the big picture and in the small details. And in a strange way, after the initial sickenss of those moments, I have been less afraid. I think if I could see God's hold on my life that clearly all the time, I would live my life much more boldly. But we only get glimpses.
Looking at these photos was one of those glimpses.

Aaron in Iraq. Isn't he all rugged and unshaved looking?

Aaron's Hummer after the explosion. Obviously, the driver's seat, where Aaron was, is the one you see.

I just wanted to let y'all know that although I haven't talked to Aaron today, he told me last time I spoke to him that he was supposed to have a follow-up appointment regarding his skin graft and the cut on his foot today. Please pray that that will go well. I'm not sure if he was meeting with his general doctor or his wound care specialist, but good news from either one of them about how Aaron's skin is healing would be nice. Good skin means Aaron can really start his rehab.
Also, Aaron told me that sometime in the next couple of days he would get online and write all of you a letter for me to post here, so look forward to that soon, assuming that I can threaten him enough to make him actually do it. Feel free to threaten him yourself via the comments section.
Moving on to other members of the family, Mom got a call from Ryan on Saturday, but she only got to talk to him for about three minutes before he had to get off the phone unexpectedly. So we don't have much news from him, but we do know he's apparently surviving his training OK. That's always good news.
Happy Tuesday.

We have heard sad, sad news today and ask that you pray with us. Aaron learned today that four of the men in his twenty-man MAP-7 platoon were killed in a car bombing and an ensuing gun fight at Haditha Dam. I’m not sure when this happened, but it was within the last few days. Aaron’s Staff Seargeant called to let him know what had happened. Seven men also were wounded, and four of those are on their way to Bethesda now. Aaron plans to see them when they arrive. Please pray for the families of the men who were killed, and pray for the lives of the wounded. So that there is no confusion, Aaron's platoon did not go to Iraq with the Reserve unit from Jackson that was deployed to Iraq as a Motor T group, and it was not that group that was attacked. Aaron was later reassigned to a special platoon made up of twenty men from a couple of different places. But we know there are four families grieving this terrible loss now, wherever they live. Pray for them. Pray also for Aaron. These were men who were very dear friends to him and he is heartbroken, as we all are, to learn that they are gone.
I am sorry that I have to do this now, but I am leaving town this afternoon to attend the wedding of a friend. There may be a break in posts for a while, so please just pray for Aaron's platoon and for he and Kelly dealing with this sad news until I can give you more information.

So there's been a bit of a communication snafu in the last few days between New Mexico, Mississippi and Washington, D.C. I spoke to Aaron very briefly this morning, but he had apparently woken up late and was about to miss a therapy appointment, so he had to run. I just talked to Mom, who was on the other line with Dad, who is on a business trip in northern Mississippi. Both of them had tried to contact Aaron and Kelly today and didn't catch them. So we're assuming that today was very busy day for them and we'll talk to them tomorrow. Sorry there isn't much to report.
I do know that on Monday, the men from Aaron's platoon who were injured in the car bombing and gun fight in Haditha Dam were supposed to arrive at Bethesda and Aaron was planning to spend some time with them and their families, so it's entirely possible that he got caught up with that and hasn't been in his room as much as he would be otherwise. Please continue to pray for these men. I am going to ask Aaron for their names soon. We haven't been told the extent of their injuries, but we do know that it took longer for them to be moved from Germany to Bethesda than it took Aaron, so we assume they are more severely injured. Please, please pray for them and their families. We know all too well what they're going through right now, and they have a tough road ahead.
More on Aaron whenever I finally get to talk to him. Thanks for checking up with us.

I have found Aaron, and he is well. I thought you'd all want to know, since he's been kind of un-findable the last few days. I talked to him on Wednesday. In case you're keeping track, that was the 18th, which means it's been two months since the attack. Hard to believe. Aaron said Wednesday was kind of a hard day because he feels like he should be farther along in the rehabilitation process than he is two months later. In the grand scheme of things, it's not going to matter how long it takes him to get walking again, but the weeks since Aaron had his skin grafts have been trying because it's involved a lot of waiting and not a lot of action. But progress is being made. Aaron said his skin graft is healing up under the supervision of his wound care specialist, who is fast becoming our favorite person. The gash on his foot is 99 percent healed, and only a small part of the tissue is still inflamed. Praise God for that.
In the meantime, Aaron is working out, trying to build his strenth up, and trying to gain some weight. At last count, Aaron weight 140 pounds. He weighed about 180 when he left, so he's lost a lot of weight, and now weighs less than me. This makes me feel just great. Our of revenge, I've threatened to sit on him and force feed him if he doesn't start bulking up soon, since I could apparently pin him to the floor for the first time in about ten years.
In the rest of their time, Aaron and Kelly are spending a lot of time with the men from Aaron's platoon who were hurt at Haditha Dam. They are seriously injured, but they haven't lost any limbs and they should be coming along nicely soon. It's good for Aaron to spend some time with them, since they are probably some of the only people who really understand what losing the men who died means to all of them. Please continue to keep these men in your prayers. I am going to post their names soon, but in the meantime, be as faithful to them and their families as you have been to us. They are family, too.
There is a break for Aaron and Kelly on the horizon. In early June, they are going home to attend the wedding of Kelly's dear friend, Megan. (Congratulations, Megan!) Then they are going to spend some time with family. When I talked to Aaron, he said he's starting to think this trip is going to be really good for them, because of being able to see people from home but also because they really need a break from the endless barrage of appointments with doctors and time in hospitals. Our family has been blessed to not spend a lot of time in hospitals over the years, but we've learned from this experience that hospitals, no matter how good they are at what they do, are inherently hard places to be. Please pray that Aaron and Kelly will have a good couple of weeks and then be able to really relax in the time they spend away from D.C.
In other news, Aaron and Kelly have recently dined at the home of the Marine Commandant along with other combat veterans, met an injured Marine who, weirdly enough, lives on the EXACT SAME ROAD where our family home is in Mississippi (what a small world!), and made friends with some very kind people from the church they've been attending in D.C. They are going to have dinner with a young married couple from the Sunday School class they've been attending soon. Somehow it's really comforting to hear about them doing something that's so very normal for the stage of life they're at. It makes me believe that one day, life will seem normal again. That's a happy thought.
As a matter of housekeeping, Kelly said she recently went back to collect their mail from the Naval Lodge and received all the packages people sent them there. Many thanks to all of you for your kindness and generosity to them via the U.S. Postal Service. We especially want to thank the students of Covenant Christian School in Yazoo City, Mississippi, where all us Rice kids attended elementary school at one time or another. The students held some kind of fundraiser for Aaron and Kelly recently and sent them the money, and that was so kind of them. Aaron and Kelly really appreciate it, y'all. Give your teachers big hugs for us ... odds are, they taught us once, and we love them.
More to come ... I have a lot of things to post from the last few weeks, but I knew you all wanted to know about Aaron and Kelly first. Feel free to send them love through the comments section, and please, please keep praying for all of us. The first few weeks of this whole process seemed like a frantic sprint, but now it's starting to feel more like a marathon, and everyone, especially Aaron and Kelly, are going to need endurance to get through the long road ahead. We're glad we have such good friends to run with.
Thanks.

When I talked to Aaron on Sunday, he was on his way to have dinner with some friends who were in D.C., but he quickly told me some interesting things, including the fact that this weekend, he and Kelly got to attend the White House Photojournalists' Awards Banquet. Don't ask me how that happened, because if I knew, I would get myself tickets way before I would tell you how to get them. President George W. Bush spoke, which Aaron enjoyed. That's all well and good, but what makes me really jealous about the whole thing is that Aaron got to sit with the editor of The Washington Post. Apparently, they had a nice chat about life and Aaron got his business card. I think he should frame it, but it's probably going to live in his wallet forever. It's probably better that this happened to Aaron than that it ever happen to me, because I would have been so awestruck that I wouldn't have managed a whole sentence, but still. Aaron did at least have the sense to preface that story by telling me "I told him that when my reporter sister found out who I was sitting with, she was going to die of jealousy." That's pretty much true.
Once Aaron was done making his rounds with the famous people, he also went on a bike ride. An organization called Creative Mobility or something like that came by to let some of the amputees and other injured men try out their custom bicycles. They took the left pedal off of one of the three-wheel bikes because those offer more stability, and Aaron rode it all around the park. He said it was really fun and he may want to get into cycling once he gets a prosthetic and can handle two pedals. He sounded really excited about it, which was great to hear.
Other than that, not a lot of news to report today. Please pray that Aaron's skin grafts continue to heal, and I'll post more when I talk to him again. Thanks.

Found this article on CNN and thought I would pass it on. Apparently, there is a major military operation going on in Haditha, which is where Aaron was stationed and where his platoon is still located. Pray for their safety and for their families, since this must cause them some anxiety. The last few weeks have been very violent in that area. Please pray that there will be as little bloodshed as possible on both sides.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. forces launched a wide-ranging offensive Wednesday against insurgents in western Iraq, involving about 1,000 American and Iraqi troops in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, the Marines said.

"The operation is successful to this point," said Marine Col. Steven Davis. "We were able to achieve what we believe is total surprise, and and we continue to do our series of coordinated searches for insurgents and for caches of munitions and weapons."

A Marine statement issued earlier described the offensive -- Operation New Market -- as "focused on disrupting insurgent activity in the vicinity of Haditha and maintaining the pressure on insurgents begun with Operation Matador" earlier this month.

That offensive -- conducted between May 7 and 14 -- was launched farther west near Syria, around Qaim. It was designed to disrupt cross-border infiltration by insurgents organizing for attacks in Ramadi, Falluja, Baghdad and Mosul.

Wednesday's resistance by insurgents is "less severe" than what forces found during Matador, Davis said at Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq. "A number of different types of groups that make up the insurgency here." But unlike Matador, Davis said, "we believe most of these are probably Iraqi insurgents at this point."

"This particular area has been subject to a very fierce intimidation campaign of the citizens" by insurgents, Davis said. "Insurgents have been targeting the military and the infrastructure installations."

Hello, all. Aaron and Kelly sent me some photos today from their adventure with Creative Mobility, a bicycling outfit that took some of the wounded veterans for a demonstration of their products last weekend. Aaron really had a great time riding around in the park ... he said all the green reminded him of Mississippi and made him homesick. I thought y'all might enjoy seeing these.

This is Aaron and Kelly getting all safety geared-up. Aren't they cute?

Aaron pedaling away.

For Memorial Day, Aaron and Kelly have been invited to go to Colorado to attend a rally of physically handicapped bicyclists so Aaron can meet other people who have gotten into this and try out some products. It sounds like it will be a really nice weekend for them, which is great. They also get to go fly fishing, and I greatly look forward to hearing about their adventures doing that. I'll keep y'all posted.

Addendum: Aaron said today that the segment he was interviewed for is supposed to run right at 6 p.m. Central Time. You should probably tune in the hour before in case it runs early, but wait until 6 p.m. before you turn the TV off completely. Thanks.
I wanted to let you all know that Aaron has been interviewed by Fox News for a story they did about the Wounded Warriors group. I'm not totally clear on whether or not Wounded Warriors is the group that sponsors the bicycling rally Aaron and Kelly are at in Colorado this weekend or if they are just the group that sent Aaron and Kelly to it, but in any event, they got some coverage for Fox News' Memorial Day programming. The reporter who interviewed Aaron said the segment would air on Fox between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Central Time on Memorial Day. Aaron said she interviewed him for about ten minutes. There's no telling how much of that interview will get aired, but make the appropriate time adjustements according to your time zone and tune in if you want to see more of Aaron's bicycling self. I am probably going to overcome my absolute loathing of cable network news channels and watch it myself. The sacrifices I make for my family. :)
I now return to my regularly scheduled programming of watching the San Antonio Spurs (hopefully) whup up on the Phoenix Suns in the NBA playoffs. Go, Spurs, Go!

Those of you who tuned in when I told you to today in an effort to catch the Fox News segment that featured Aaron and Kelly are, no doubt, dissapointed right about now because you didn't see it. I didn't either. Here is what happened, as best we can tell: The reporter who interviewed Aaron and Kelly did say that the segment would air on Monday. Obviously, it didn't, and I can understand how that happened, because the reporter probably has no real control over when it airs. But all is not lost. We as a family have an old saying. It goes like this: "WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE FOX NEWS THEME SONG!"
Yes, my mom is a Fox News fanatic. In fact, if you walk into our house on any given day, I will bet you twenty dollars that Fox News is playing on the TV. Normally, I consider this to be a bad thing because I find cable network news to be second only to AM talk radio in the ranking of Things I Would Rather Scrape My Fingernails Across a Chalkboard Than Listen To. But that is beside the point. On Sunday (note: SUNDAY) afternoon at around 6 p.m. Central Time, Mom was folding some clothes and watching Fox News when the announcer started talking about a bicycling rally for the physically handicapped in Colorado. Mom popped a tape into the VCR just in time to tape the segment with Aaron and Kelly. On SUNDAY. So in this case, although it pains me to admit it, Mom's TV news-junkie habits turned out to be a good thing. Sorry that y'all probably missed the segment. I'm going to check around and see if there is any link for the video on the Fox News site and if there is, we'll post it here. Otherwise, you can call my mom and ask her how it was.
If you can convince her to turn the volume down.

Kelly wanted me to pass along this information in case any of y'all are interested in greeting she and Aaron at the Jackson airport tomorrow. But first, raise your right hand, and repeat after me:

"I do hereby solemnly swear that I understand that this information is to be kept secret from Aaron, who does not have computer access right now and will not read this blog. I will talk about this information to anyone I please except for Aaron. If I chance to talk to Aaron in the next 24 hours, I will act as though I have never heard any of this information in my life."

Thank you. Here's the scoop:
Tomorrow, Thursday June 2, Aaron and Kelly are going home to Mississippi to attend the weekend wedding of a friend of Kelly's. They will then spend a few days with Kelly's family and then take a trip with my family to Gatlinburg for a Rice family reunion. It's going to be a busy trip and they will really not be in the State of Mississippi for all that long.
But because this will be the first time Aaron has been back in Mississippi at all since leaving for Iraq, a big to-do has been organized. There are a lot of Marines, Marine families, veterans groups and media planning to meet them at the airport and welcome them home. Any of y'all in the Jackson airport or within driving distance are invited to do the same. Here's what you'll need to know if you want to attend the homecoming:
You should be at the Jackson International Airport no later than 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, earlier if possible. There will be quite a crowd and it shouldn't be hard to find, but if you get lost in the enormity that is the Jackson airport, the group should be located in the terminal area at the entrance of the security checkpoints outside the gate area. Aaron and Kelly will be on a Delta flight arriving from Atlanta at approximately 1 p.m., and the idea is for them to walk out of the gates and be met by their adoring public.

An important disclaimer: After their arrival, Aaron and Kelly will probably be able to stay and say hello for a few minutes. But please bear in mind that they are on a schedule. As part of the festivities of the day, a police escort has been arranged to take Aaron and Kelly and their immediate families only to the Governor's Mansion, where Governor Haley Barbour and military officials will present Aaron with his Purple Heart in a private ceremony. Again, that part of the day is for immediate family only.
I'm sure I'll be sent pictures from that, and when I have them, I'll post them here. If you have any other questions, contact me at haley@wachdorf.com. Thanks.

Just a quick note to thank all of you who went to so much effort to make Aaron and Kelly's homecoming really special. It sounds like there were a lot of people there, and I know they and my family felt very loved. In the next week or so, Aaron and Kelly, as well as the rest of my family, will be traveling and somewhat out of contact, so updates here may not be very frequent. I am hoping to get my hands on some photos from today's festivities, and if I do, I'll post them here. In the meantime, please pray for safe travel for Aaron, Kelly, Mom, Dad, Hannah and Audrey as they make their way to Gatlinburg for a family reunion early next week.

I so love my industry. No complicated video clips, no tuning in, just words and pictures. It's so comforting. Check out this link to see the great story the Clarion Ledger wrote about yesterday. I see some familiar names in the story, and I'm glad they were able to talk to some of y'all. Enjoy your fame. :) I'm told there were also TV stations there, and if I can get tech-savvy enough to link to them, too, I will. Our thanks to the Clarion Ledger for taking the time to do a nice job on this story, and to all the news groups that were willing to come tell our story.

http://clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050603/NEWS01/506030387/1002

Just a note for those of you who are reading this blog because you want to know how Aaron and Kelly are doing as opposed to what absurd issue Dan and I are arguing about this week. (Not that there is anything petty about Rock, Paper, Scissors. I think you all know how important that is.)
If you are planning to send any packages or mail to Aaron and Kelly, hang on to them for the time being. Right before they left for the trip they are on right now, they changed locations yet again. I'm starting to think of them as a couple's version of Where's Waldo. I promise to get you a current address for them soon, but right now they're off in Tennessee relaxing. So in the meantime, you're stuck with me. I apologize. Only a few more days.

I spoke to my dad a today and it seems that everyone has made it back safely from the trip to the family reunion in Gatlinburg. That's very very good news. My uncle Steven and Aunt Pam had what sounds like a pretty serious wreck on the way home because of some heavy rain moving through the area. We're extremely thankful that they are OK and thank you all for your prayers for safe travel for everyone. Aaron and Kelly have made it back to Washington D.C. and I'm hoping to talk to the Man himself in the next day or so. When I do, I'll let you all know how they are doing. From my dad, it sounds like the family reunion was a big success and a nice relaxing time. More information as I get it.

Really I just wanted to say "Breaking News" since I never get to use that phrase, being in newspapers instead of TV.

I don't know much about this, but I just got a text message on my cell phone from Kelly that said "Aaron just got his first leg!" I assume this means he's been fitted with a prosthetic training leg that he'll use for the first phase of his rehabilitation.
Please join us in thanking God that Aaron has reached this milestone in his healing process. Those of you who have been following this site know that it has taken longer to reach this point than we originally expected, and it is exciting to finally get to the part of the story where Aaron learns to walk again. I'm sure he feels great about it too and I plan to talk to him and pass on what I hear as soon as I can. I am covering a late meeting tonight so that might not happen until tomorrow. But in the meantime, praise God with us for His goodness.

Greatest quote of recent months, said by Aaron last night on the phone. You have to imagine it said in that sing-song voice kids use when they say "Nanny nanny boo boo" for it to have its full effect:

"I've got leee-eegs. I've got leee-eegs."

As of yesterday, Aaron does indeed have two legs for the first time since March. At his first session, he used his new leg for an hour, just getting used to the feel of it and learning to bear weight a little. He'll build up his ability to use it every day from now on. Initially, the process can be painful, but Aaron said that aside from a little soreness, he didn't feel much pain. The leg he is using now is heavier and less flexible than what his final prosthetics will be like, mostly to give him added stability and build strength while he learns to walk again. But at this point, I think Aaron is just thrilled to have it. Again, we're all so thankful to have reached this point, and we thank you for your prayers for Aaron and all of us. I hope we can get some pictures of Aaron walking around soon to post here so you can see it for yourself.
As a matter of housekeeping, I still don't have an address for Aaron and Kelly, and I apologize. It's on my list of things to ask about the next time I talk to them.

Aaron and Kelly's new fan mail address is as follows:

Aaron and Kelly Rice
c/o The Hilton Hotel
Room 801
8727 Colesville Road
Silver Springs, MD
20910

Kelly said today that she thinks she and Aaron will be there for the forseeable future, so hopefully that will lessen the constant Where's Waldo-style dillema of how to reach them. Thanks for your patience.

I spoke to Aaron on Sunday evening, and it seems that he has taken up another sport. Late last week, he was invited to be part of a charity golf tournament, but declined because he, um, doesn't actually play golf. When he said no, the person who invited him told him that he could still go out to the course for a free driving session or whatever it's called when you just stand there and hit the ball. (Again, I am not the resident sports expert. I'm not sure who that is in our family, but it's certainly not me.) So he went out and had a trainer at the course give him some pointers on his brand new golf swing. It was a little tough because he can't wear his new prosthetic leg for as long as it would take him to golf yet, so he balanced his knee in a chair and figured he would make do. Well, to all you golfers out there, here's a tip: balance your knee in a chair. Apparently, once he got his balance, Aaron found out he has a natural golf swing. After a few pointers, he was hitting the ball so well that people were asking him how long he had been golfing and then getting jealous when he said he'd never done it before. So when I spoke to him on Sunday, he was planning to go to bed early so he wouldn't be late for the charity golf tournament, which he decided to play in after all. He said later in the day he learned how to play without the chair so he won't mess up the green, and apparently there are some pretty great photos of Aaron playing golf on one leg that he and Kelly plan to send to me soon. When they do, I'll post them here.
Aside from that, there isn't a lot to report. Aaron is continuing to go to his therapy appointments, and is making good progress. Please keep praying for both Aaron and Kelly, and feel free to leave any golf tips you know about in the comments section. Or biking tips, or rafting tips, or water-skiing tips, since those are also things Aaron and Kelly have either tried in the last few weeks or plan to try out in the near future. Perhaps parasailing will be next.
Thanks for checking in. We love you all.
And, before I forget, Go Spurs, Go! The San Antonio Spurs *could* win it all tonight. And if they do, I feel bad for our neighbors, because we'll be screaming so loud they'll never get any sleep. For anyone who was watching Sunday's game, how about that beautiful last minute three point shot to win it in overtime by Robert Horry? We stayed up just to watch the instant replays. Here's to more shots like that tonight. Because I don't have the emotional energy for Game Seven.

I just got a call from Aaron. There was all this noise in the background and at first he couldn't hear me. But once he did, he said he was calling to let me know that he was at a Dave Matthews Band concert in VIP seating.
"I figured you would want to kill me when you knew where I was, so I couldn't pass up the chance to call," he said, laughing.
Apparently, one of the privileges of VIP seating in this instance is that after the show, Aaron and Kelly will be taking a back stage trip to meet Dave Matthews himself. I told him to take pictures and tell Dave hello for me. Aaron couldn't hear me very well, so there wasn't time to say much else.
If there had been better reception on his cell phone, he would have heard me telling him that I hope he really enjoys this. Because I'm going to have to kill him next time I see him.

Here, at long last, are some of the photos that Aaron and Kelly have taken in the last few weeks. First, a photo from Aaron and Kelly "Tiger Woods" Rice's adventures on the golfing green.

And one from Aaron's rehabilitation:

There are lots more pictures to see. Follow this link:

http://albums.ourpictures.com/Images?id=165602-xfrwwoha

This is a photo I forgot to post from when we all went to church. Obviously, it's me and the boys, but it's also gives me an opportunity to tell a funny story. When we were sitting in church, Kelly was sitting right between Aaron and Ryan, and Dan leaned over to me and made the comment that Kelly looked like she could be the President's daughter, sitting there with two Marines for a security detail. It was true - those uniforms are pretty intimidating. Unless, of course, it's your little brothers wearing them. Then it's just kind of funny. Maybe that's why I look less like the president's daughter in this shot and more like a goofy third cousin of the president, but I still like this picture a lot.

I enjoyed this story on cnn.com yesterday. It's about an organization that Aaron has appreciated and been involved with as much as he can, so I thought y'all might enjoy it too. Follow this link:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/07/12/wounded.warriors.ap/index.html

Everyone please stop by the comments section and wish Kelly Maxwell Rice a very happy birthday! I believe that this is Kelly's 21st birthday, which means we will have to stop teasing her about being a young'un. I have been told by secret sources (my mom) that Aaron and Kelly have gone to the beach to celebrate Kelly's big day. I think they are gone for a couple of days, so it might be a while until I have an update on them. Until then, Happy Birthday, Kelly! We're so overjoyed that you are part of our family, and we love you very much.

Here's a photo of Aaron and Kelly with Glenn Bratcher, a gentleman who has befriended them in D.C. and whose church they have been attending while they are away from home. Thanks to Mr. Bratcher for sending the photos and for being really supportive of Aaron, Kelly, and the rest of our family, even though he's never met us before all of this.

Anyone who is in the Hattiesburg area tomorrow might want to go to this. The Hub City Military Order of the Purple Heart is going to be having a book signing of a book they've put together called "Combat Wounded: Our Story" starting at 11 a.m. Saturday July 23 in front of Garfield's restaurant at Turtle Creek Mall. The book is a collection of the stories of 74 men from around the Pine Belt who have received the Purple Heart. Tomorrow, the proceeds from any books sold at the book signing will go into a fund to help Aaron and Kelly with their expenses when they get back home. This was initiated by the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and we're so thankful to them for their kindness. There is going to be some news coverage of this in the paper and on TV, and Mom and Dad have been interviewed for all of that, so most of you will probably learn about it, but I thought I'd put it up here also. If you want to watch, the news segment about it will be on WDAM tonight as far as we know, so tune in. Mom and Dad are going to be at the book signing because the order wants to take some photos with them, so if you've got time, go out and say hello. Or buy a book. I think we can confidently say that it's going to a good cause. Here's a link to a story the Hattiesburg American did about it:
http://hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050719/NEWS01/50719001&SearchID=73214959736821

Here are some photos from Kelly's 21st birthday celebration and a long overdue update on how things are going at the Washington D.C. offices of the Rice family. It's kind of complicated, so follow me closely here:

Kelly is in Starkville, Mississippi right now getting furniture moved into the new apartment she and Aaron will live in when they are done with Aaron's rehab. My mom, her mom and her dad are all helping out with that endeavor, which also involves getting a lot of Aaron and Kelly's things out of storage where they were put before Aaron was deployed. Kelly should go back to D.C. sometime this weekend.

Aaron is still in D.C. doing his physical therapy at Walter Reed, but he's not alone this week because

Ryan is up there visiting him. That's right, Aaron and Ryan are alone, unsupervised, in a large city. It's very frightening, but I hear they are having a good time together.

So for now, with people pretty busy, there isn't much else to report. Please pray for Kelly's travels to be safe and that she will be able to get everything done that she wants to do this week. She wants to have a nice place for her and Aaron to come back to after months of living in hotels and hospitals. Also pray that Aaron's healing process and physical therapy will progress as they should and that Ryan will have safe travels.

Here are some photos that Mr. Glenn Bratcher sent to me from the evening that he and a couple from their church took Kelly, Aaron and Ryan out to celebrate Kelly's 21st.

This is Kelly getting carded and showing her ID to the waiter after ordering a drink, while Aaron laughs at her, like all good supportive spouses are supposed to do:

She was given her drink on the house as a birthday gift from the restaurant. She looks very happy with it. Aaron is still laughing at her.

This is the whole group at their table at Buccca di Beppa's, which is a wonderful family-style Italian place where they bring the food out on big platters and you pass it around the table, family style. From left, I am told, we have Ken and Beth Gibson, friends from church, Kelly, Ryan in all his bald-headed glory, and Aaron. Did I mention that Ryan let me shave his head when we were home? It was fun.

And that is all I know for right now. Thanks so much for continuing to stay updated on our adventures, and please keep praying for us. We love y'all.

Sorry for the break in blog posts. Work has been busy and we now have a houseguest staying with us, Hannah Wachdorf, my lovely sister-in-law and Dan's baby sister, so our lives are much more interesting than usual and I don't have time for y'all. (Just kidding.) But for those of you who read this site to stay updated on Aaron and Kelly, here's an update.

Kelly has moved most of their belongings into their apartment in Starkville. They aren't going to be taking up permanent residence there immediately, but they were able to get their things out of storage and start getting the apartment set up like they want it, with some help from parents.

As of Monday, Aaron is also in Starkville, to spend some time with Kelly and take a break from D.C. Right now, Aaron is at kind of a slow spot in his recuperation, and there's no reason he needs to be in D.C. constantly. As some of you may remember, Aaron had to have a skin graft a couple of months after his amputation. Although that needed to be done and the graft was largely succesful, it proved to be the most trying part of this whole process because it took so long to heal. Aaron had healed up enough to be fitted for a prosthetic at some point in June, but he continued to have trouble with a small, small spot of skin on his leg not wanting to heal all the way. This was very frustrating, because in every other aspect, Aaron is totally able to move forward in his physical therapy, and being held back by something that small was like getting sidelined from a football game because you have a mosquito bite. Within the last few weeks, Aaron volunteered to be a kind of guinea pig for a new device the military hospitals are testing out for stubborn wounds like his. I don't really understand how it works, but the basic idea is that the patient uses some kind of contraption that directs pure oxygen to the area in an attempt to provide the best possible circulation and encourage the tissue to make the final step towards being completely healthy. The great news is that it appears to have worked. Aaron's skin is, at the moment, completely healed up, and for that we're very, very thankful. Like I said, he is taking some time off of therapy right now to take it easy and make sure that his newly-formed skin has plenty of time to get strong so that it can consistently bear his weight and the friction of a prosthetic. Please pray with us that this would be the last time Aaron has to deal with this particular issue. He is physically fit and ready to get back to walking all the time if this one thing stays stable.
Aside from that, please pray for safety the Rice family in general, as Aaron and Kelly will be traveling, and Ryan and our newest college student Hannah Ruth Rice will also be starting the process of moving up to Starkville this week, with help from Mom and her white Chevy Suburban, affectionately nicknamed the Big White Burrito. Honk if you see them on the road.
Thanks for checking in, y'all. We love you.

I talked to Mom today, who said that Aaron and Kelly have gotten back to Washington, D.C. just fine after spending a couple of weeks in Mississippi getting their new apartment all set up. Aaron is back in rehabilitation, and has reached a good milestone. He had been having some trouble with his prosthetic in that after only a little while, it made his knee hurt, and he couldn't keep it on for very long. When he got back to D.C., his doctors did some refitting of his prosthetic, and that seems to have made all the difference. In fact, Aaron is now able to run on his prosthetic leg, which is a big deal, because that takes a lot of strength and balance. I imagine that if I were to see him today, he would challenge me to race him, and I have no doubt he would win.
We are really relieved to know that the pain Aaron was having was due to a fitting issue, and not something he will always have to deal with. Keep praying for Aaron and Kelly, that Aaron's physical therapy will move forward quickly so that they can get back home permanently. I know that's really where they want to be. Thanks for checking in. We love y'all.

The Third Battallion, 25th Marines, the group that Aaron deployed with, has come home. Praise the Lord. There are 900 Marines in a battallion; in the 3/25, 48 were killed and 150 were wounded during their seven months in Iraq. That is a lot of people for one battallion to lose, and I know that for the families with Marines in this group, this has been a long, scary seven months. Aaron has some dear friends among those men, and it's my understanding that he traveled to Camp Lejune this week to see them when they arrived there. Our joy at their return knows no bounds. We have been anxious for them every day.

Here's an article about the group from Ohio, who suffered particularly heavy losses, coming home.

I talked to Aaron and Kelly tonight, and it seems they have been busy. The biggest news is that they are in the process of getting their paperwork in order for Aaron's discharge from Walter Reed. You would think that would be fairly easy, but it's actually a several-weeks-long process of paperwork and final meetings with doctors. If all goes well, they should be back home in Mississippi before Thanksgiving. Aaron and Kelly got married on November 18 of last year, so it would be really great if they could be home in time for their first anniversary, but we'll see. Please keep praying that Aaron's final checkups will go well and that all the paperwork will be in order as soon as possible. I think they just want to go home now, and the rest of the family would like that too.
If recent events are any indication, Aaron is in fantastic physical shape and could clearly kick my butt or anyone else'e for that matter. A couple of weeks ago, Aaron and Kelly both participated in the Army's Ten-Mile Run, which turned into an 11.5 mile run because of a last minute re-routing. There are usually a large group of amputees who run, and of that group, Aaron has had his prosthetic the least amount of time ... just over two months in terms of how long he's been able to wear it consistently. But he ran the whole thing straight through in two hours and actually finished first of all the leg amputees, which was pretty cool. Kelly also put in a great showing, finishing about 20 minutes behind Aaron, and proving once again that she is a better woman than I am, because I'm not sure I would or could run 11.5 miles for anyone, ever. Aaron was interviewed at length by a reporter from Sports Illustrated who was covering the event, and if he surfaces in the article, we'll let you know. I am starting to wonder if Aaron wears some kind of special shirt at these events that says "I (Heart) Reporters," because reporters just seem to be drawn to him by some magnetic forcefield. Being a reporter myself, I would probably bet that it has something to do with the fact that Aaron is really articulate and finishes his sentences, but I'm also not abandoning the special T-shirt theory.
That's about it for tonight. I hope that the next thing I have to tell you is that Aaron and Kelly are on their way home. That will truly be a good day. Thank you all for your love and prayers for Aaron and Kelly and all of us. We love you.

Aaron's big appearance on The Today Show is supposed to air tomorrow, Tuesday October 18. Aaron found out today or we would have given you a bit more notice. The Today Show is an NBC program and airs from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. according to the web site. Aaron said the producer told him she thinks the story he is part of will air in the second hour of the broadcast. But check your local listings for time information, and if you want to be sure to catch it, tune into the whole thing. And if anyone tapes it, let me know!

As some of you may have noticed as you watched all three hours of the Today Show, Aaron was not on TV this morning. So sorry about that. All we can figure is that the segment Aaron was part of got bumped off the schedule for today. No new word on when it might air, but we'll let you know anything we hear.

OK, kids. Supposedly, the segment of the Today Show that Aaron is involved in has been rescheduled for tomorrow, October 20, in the 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. hour. Obviously, we won't know if that's true until it airs, but tune in if you can. The Today Show runs from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the east coast, but check your local listings. It's a looooong program. Love to you all.

Well, I was all geared up to watch the Today Show when Aaron called and said that as of the east coast end of the show, his story had not appeared. From watching the show so far, I'm not sure what our pressing need is to know the latest updates on gastric bypass surgery instead of seeing Aaron. But I'm probably biased just a little.
Sorry it wasn't on.

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.

I've been wanting to wait until I could talk to Aaron and Kelly to post this, but at the rate things are going right now, I don't know when I'll find time to call, so I'll just go ahead and spread the very basic good news:
Aaron and Kelly are coming home to Mississippi for good next week!
Mom says they will leave Washington D.C. on Thursday and get into Starkville on Friday. I know they are thrilled to be getting back home. Please pray for a safe trip for them. It's a long drive, but one I know they are happy to make. Thank you for your prayers that Aaron's discharge from the hospital would go smoothly, and for everything else. We love you.

This weekend, Dan and I attended the New Mexico Press Association's awards banquet because I somehow won a couple of awards for my work in the last year. One of the awards meant a lot to me because it was first prize in the columns competition in my state division for a pair of columns I wrote about Aaron and Ryan and everything that has happened since we found out Aaron was going to be deployed to Iraq last year. The first one also won honorable mention in my division of the Serious Column category of the National Newspaper Assocation competititon earlier this year. My parents, because they are proud of me and the fact that I have gone on to be mildly accomplished even though I can't do math, say that I should post the columns here so that you all can read them. After this, I'm thinking about attaching magnets to the back of the plaque I got so I can hang it on the refrigerator. Here they are. These were originally published in the Valencia County News-Bulletin on the dates listed.

October 16, 2004
By Haley Wachdorf

I was standing in my kitchen in Albuquerque two weeks ago talking on the telephone and rummaging through the refrigerator to check the expiration date on a half-gallon of milk when my mom told me that my little brother Aaron is going to the war in Iraq next year. It's funny how the big news in your life hits when you're least expecting it, and you just can't quite think of what to do. I actually kept looking to make sure the milk was still good before I sat down on the floor and cried.
My twin brothers, Aaron and Ryan, are 21 years old, but it's hard for me to remember that. Instead, I remember the days when my family had a weekend cabin in north Mississippi. When I think of my brothers, I see both of them standing at the top of some hill on our land, shirtless, skinny little ribs poking out of their 8-year-old bodies, holding sticks in their grubby hands in place of guns and declaring that there would be "No girls in our fort, Haley." All five kids in my family were born with these enormous chubby cheeks that prevented us from pronouncing our words properly, so it always sounded more like "No gulls in owa fowt, Haley."
Naturally, I have been thinking about Aaron a lot lately. I love Aaron, and the little kid in me is ready and willing to beat up anybody who says anything bad about him, but I'm not going to deny that it's a wonder we didn't kill each other when we were kids. Now that I'm older, I recognize that Aaron and I are just a little too similar to one another in personality to get along easily. We're both stubborn, or, as the older folks in Mississippi would say, "ornery", we're both unflinchingly passionate about the things we believe in, and we both have a hard time admitting we were wrong about anything. Ever. We fought pretty much from the moment he was able to stand up and talk. I think my parents considered putting muzzles on us.
But in more recent years, the most amazing thing has happened. I have really started to enjoy my brothers. When they tell stories about things we've done or things my family did a long time ago, I laugh until I can't breathe even though I've heard those stories over and over. They're both tall and good looking and smart, and it's been a while since any of us threatened to tell on each other to Mom. Of course, we're not above the occasional childish prank. When I got married, the boys gave me a live lizard wrapped in a gift box at the wedding reception. It jumped out of the box, and everyone screamed. Since I was in my wedding dress, I didn't chase them down, but they ran anyway.
When Aaron told the family that he was going to join the Marine Reserves last year, I was proud of him, but a little worried, too. I know he's really an adult, but it seemed wrong somehow for my little brother to be a warrior and carry a real gun instead of a stick. Also, I knew that with a war going on, there was a good chance he would have to go overseas at some point. I just didn't want to think about it. But now I have to, and I am afraid.
Aaron, in his typically confident way, got on the phone the night I heard the news and told me not to worry, that he will be fine. I want that to be true. I so very much want that to be true.
Aaron is supposed to be deployed in March, but he leaves in December for a few months of training. On November 20, I'm going home to see him get married to his long-time girlfriend, Kelly, before he leaves. It's going to be a great wedding, and I can't wait to go. But if Aaron think he's going to get off without any pranks from me at his wedding, he's clearly forgotten the lizard incident. I'm already digging through my boxes of old photos to find the most embarrassing pictures I can find to turn into slides for the rehearsal dinner.
If I cry on the pictures a little bit in the process, no one has to know.

April 2, 2005
By Haley Wachdorf
News-Bulletin Staff Writer

Friday, March 18, was just another day for me. I came to work, wrote a story, went to a school to take some photos, and then went home. I remember that I was in a really happy mood as I was driving down Highway 47 looking at the beautiful countryside and thinking about all the little errands I needed to take care of on Saturday.
I didn’t know that at that very moment on the other side of the world, my brother was gravely injured, lying in a building west of Baghdad waiting for the fighting around him to subside enough that a helicopter could land and take him to a hospital.
It has been about six months since my family learned that Aaron, one of my two Marine brothers, would be deployed to Iraq. Since he left in January, I think each member of my family has visualized what would happen if we ever had to hear news telling us that Aaron had been killed in combat. It’s a morbid thing to do, but somehow it’s impossible not to think about it.
In my vision of that moment I hoped would never come, I knew that I would be told on the phone, most likely by my mother, and that I would know something terrible had happened immediately, because my mother would be crying.
On Saturday morning, just as I was starting in on my second cup of coffee, the phone rang. My husband answered it. He handed the phone to me. It was my mom, and she was crying.
Some people claim that when you get close to dying, your life flashes before your eyes. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that in the moment when I thought Aaron was dead, it was like someone had flipped a switch that turned off all the lights in the world and started a rapid-fire series of images in my mind.
Instead of my kitchen cabinets, which were inches from my face, I saw Aaron when we were little, clinging to the top of the magnolia tree in our yard with his twin brother, Ryan. I saw them walking in front of me on the way to school on cool fall mornings, starting off at a casual walk and then eventually breaking out into a full run, racing one another to the stop sign at the end of our street. I saw them dangling their skinny, tanned legs out of the window of our two-story playhouse, daring one another to jump out into the summer twilight. I saw them land safely and roll around in the grass, holding their sides in hysterical laughter at their brush with gravity.
Then I tried to picture it all without Aaron. Ryan without his brother and best friend Aaron. Kelly, Aaron’s beautiful wife, without Aaron. I tried to see our big loud family, with our marathon meals and poker games and fireworks and inside jokes and constant laughter, only with four kids instead of five.
This is the moment when the nightmare comes true for some families, and my heart breaks for them.
But for me, a few seconds after that moment, the words my mom was saying to me suddenly turned into English again, and I realized that Aaron was alive. The Humvee he was driving in Iraq struck an improvised explosive device planted by insurgents, and Aaron was injured in the explosion. His leg had to be amputated below the knee after he was taken to Germany by helicopter.
It’s not good news. The idea that someone would lie in wait to hurt or kill someone you love so much is absolutely hateful. Knowing that my brother will have to go through life without his leg makes me sad.
But I’m thankful that we don’t have to go through life without him.
In the next week or so, I’m going to travel to National Naval Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to see Aaron. He is recuperating marvelously and will be learning to walk with a prosthetic leg soon.
When I see him, I’m not sure if I’m going to hug him or beat him senseless with hospital pillows for frightening all of us so much, but I know that I’m going to talk to him for hours and hours.
Because I still can.

As a note to all those of you who follow our press service here, it sounds like Aaron is actually going to be featured pretty extensively in an article written by the Sport Illustrated reporter who covered the Army's ten mile run back in September. I'll find out more and let you know. Of course, one of these days, we're told Aaron is going to be on the Today Show, but I'll believe that when I see it at this point.
Goodnight, all.

I am on my way out the door to work, and from there I will head to the airport, where Continental Airlines is supposed to let me get on a plane and go home to Mississippi to attend the Picayune wedding of Lindsay Burrell and Chris Carr, two dear friends. I love weddings. But I thought y'all might want to know about something the rest of my family will be doing this weekend on the other end of Mississippi. Aaron and another young man from Mississippi State University who was hurt in Iraq are going to be honored during half time at the MSU football game on Saturday. Now, if the game is televised in Mississippi, I don't know if they show the halftime festivities or not, but if they do, watch for it. And if you're at the game, as I'm sure some of you will be anyway, cheer loud.
Love to you all.

I hate to tell y'all this, but Aaron was on the Today Show this morning. I am so sorry, I had no warning or I would have posted information here. I haven't even seen it yet, because I only found out as I was on my way out the door to work, but Dan saw it and is using our computer to record it, and since it was part of their Veteran's Day coverage, I hope they will maybe post some kind of footage on their web site. If not, you can all go to our house if you're in Albuquerque or go visit my mom if you're in Mississippi, and we'll show you what we taped. More later.

I got to watch the Today Show segment Aaron was involved in, and I have to say, it was worth the wait. I'm not sure if it was worth me viewing a 30 minute segment on gastric bybass surgery on one of the days that the piece was supposed to run, but still. Dan posted the link to the video in the entry below, so thanks to him for doing that since I was at work and was temporarily unable to fill my role as Public Relations Officer for the Rice Family. (I will cut him a check later.) On a technical note, if you use Mozilla Firefox for your Internet browser, you're going to want to switch to Internet Explorer to view the video.
In terms of a review, I thought the piece was really nicely done, and I was glad that it featured a great organization called Team River Runner, which is part of the Wounded Warrior Project that has been very helpful for Aaron and therefore all of us. Check them out here and think about giving them some money. It's also always great to see my family, even if it is on video. I choked up a little when Aaron was talking, but I'm not sure if that's just me or if anyone else would feel the same way. Let me know in the comments section.
Also, not that anyone else cares, except maybe my brother Ryan, but props to the Today Show for the use of awesome music in the piece.(The Shins "New Slang" and Franz Ferdinand "Float On.") I know I am a nerd, but I think music is important, and those were both excellent calls given the content of the segment.
Let me know if you have trouble accessing the video, and I will consult our Technical Director here at Rice PR, Dan the Great. Thanks to all of you for wanting to see this. We love you.

Who is ready for some really good news? Well, I've got what you want right here.
This week, my family found out that .....
Ryan is not going to Iraq in January after all!
Isn't that just the best thing you've heard in weeks? It is to me! You could call off Christmas right this minute, and I wouldn't care! I got my present at Thanksgiving.

We're not totally sure why his unit was deactivated, but the Marines tell us it was, and that's the kind of news you just accept without a lot of question-asking.
Ryan will at some point go to Iraq, we have no doubts about that, but I personally am really glad that he's not going right this minute. We'll all breathe a little easier this holiday season without that to think about. So join us in being thankful. It's a good time of year for that.
We love y'all.

Happy first anniversary to Aaron and Kelly, who got married on November 20, 2004. When I talked to them today they were getting ready to eat a piece of their year old wedding cake. Brave people.

Aaron is featured in the current edition of Sports Illustrated, in an article about the Army Ten Mile run. Online, you can't get access to the whole article unless you're a subscriber, but run out and get your print copies of the December 12 edition ASAP. Props to Hannah's boyfriend, Daniel, for telling me about this. I had sort of forgotten it was coming. I have promised him a cut of the hefty fee I charge for serving as public relations representative for the Rice Family, Inc.

What did I tell y'all about the reporters? They love Aaron.

I am kind of distracted lately, (see below post) and that may be why I didn't realize until recently that there is, in fact, a way for y'all to view the Sports Illustrated story about Aaron online. Hannah's boyfriend, Daniel, has scanned the story and made a PDF file that you can download to see only the part of the story that concerns Aaron. It's on his site,
which is here. Click on the phrase, Run to Daylight. Hope that helps those of you who are having trouble finding a copy of SI ... for some weird reason, we can't seem to find one for love or money, but I don't know what that's about.

Hey, people.
A couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me that it was about to be March 18, the day last year when Aaron got hurt. And I wondered if that was the kind of thing that it would be OK to mention here on the site. I thought I'd run it past Aaron first, to make sure he wouldn't think that was insenstive or something.
But then, yesterday, when I asked everyone to tell me what they were doing this weekend, Aaron left the following comment that led me to believe he might feel just fine about it. Here is what Aaron says he's up to:

"I'm actually planning on partying to the best of my abilites this weekend. Saturday is my stump's first birthday! I was planning on going sky-diving, but it looks like those plans fell through, so I'll just see what other sort of trouble I can get into."

So there you have it. It's been a year, and that's worth celebrating. Personally I'll probably call Aaron and talk for a little while to find out what he's up to, and then I'll hang up and go back to cleaning the house or whatever I'm doing and revel in the fabulous normalness of this day as compared to last year. But I'll also take a minute to be thankful. Join me if you want.

For folks who want an update on how Aaron is doing, check out this story that ran in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. It must have been a follow-up to when they wrote about Aaron being hurt. Anyway, enjoy.

In a week, Dan and I will be heading to Mississippi to see family and then take a quick trip down to Florida to spend some time with our friends Sam and Shanelle. We're really looking forward to a break after a few very busy months. Unfortunately, this is a sight we will not get to see while we are there:

My brother Ryan has just left Mississippi to go to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina for a few months before leaving on a seven-month deployment to Africa with the Marines. He'll be in Djibouti and if you want to read a short description of the area, check this site.

I went home in April to spend a couple of days with Ryan since we did the math and figured out that he would be leaving before Dan and I got home for another trip, and the picture above is from when Ryan beat me mercilessly at a game we used to play when we were little. I can't remember what the game is actually called, but it's the one where the goal is to try to capture your opponent's collection of small colored stones. Notice how many stones Ryan has in this picture and how happy he is about it.

Pretty soon I'll get an address for Ryan at LeJeune and put it up so anyone who wants can write to him. In the meantime, please pray for safe travels for Ryan and pray for all of us, because we'll miss him. The good news is that we have a task to occupy our minds: When I talked to Ryan last week, he told me that my job while he's gone is to form a search committee and get him lined up for a bunch of blind dates when he gets home with girls that Kelly and Hannah and Audrey and I have picked out. He told me that he's going to be worth all this effort because he's going to spend his free time in Djibouti lifting weights and generally becoming the kind of muscle-bound He-Man women want. Or something.

I told him that in order to prevent riots from breaking out at the airport upon his return, we'd organize a Bachelorette-style reality show to narrow down the contestants and I was sure there would be women writing to us from all over the world once they saw these pictures online. So ladies, if you want to get in line to date Ryan the Megastud when he gets back in a year, shoot me an email and I'll tell you about the various obstacle courses and physical challenges you'll have to endure to win that right. It's not that we need you to prove anything. It's just that while Ryan's gone, we're going to be really bored.

I'm back from a wonderful weekend with some close friends, and a long, intimate acquaintance with airport security and the new regime against all forms of cream, gel and liquid. I'll have some more thoughts on that later. But for now, the most important thing for you to know is that my brother, Ryan, has made it safely to Africa, where he'll be deployed for the next seven months. I'll have a mailing address for him soon, so for anyone who wants to send him a care package full of items likely to survive the triple-digit heat, leave me a comment and I'll let you know when I've got the address. For now, join us in thanking God for Ryan's safe travel and praying for an equally safe time in Africa.

Good morning, folks. I didn't realize this until Aaron sent me a link to an item on the Mississippi State University web site, but he was asked to speak at a September 11 memorial service yesterday. There's a photo of him and a write-up on the ceremony here. So if you want to see my handsome brother, go check it out.

Today, we are celebrating March 18, or, as Aaron refers to it, "Third Annual Survivor Day." So we remember all of this. And we are thankful, because today is a day when we were shown great mercy.

Psalm 103
Praise for the Lord's Mercies

Verses 1-5
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits.
Who pardons all your iniquities.
Who heals all your diseases.
Who redeems your life from the pit.
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion.
Who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

Verses 13-17

"Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust.
As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field so he flourishes.
When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer.
But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him
And his righteousness to children's children to those who keep His covenant."

The trip to Mississippi that Kate and I took a couple of weeks ago was actually unplanned. And while surprises are good and it's always nice to go home and see the family, I can't say I was particularly happy about the reason for our trip. We were going to say goodbye to Ryan, who called a few days before to say that he was leaving for Iraq in less than a month. Technically, he was leaving for California to train for the deployment, which will officially begin in a couple of months, but you get the picture. And it's a familiar one, because we've been here before, and it was hard.

Once we got home from our trip, we rapidly got ready for a visit from Dan's parents, who went home yesterday. Now we're back to our normal routine, and that is good. Except that now I will have time to worry. I can hear my own thoughts more clearly in the lull, and they are fearful. I knew they would be, and it makes me feel tired in advance to think of how hard I will have to grapple in the next few months just to keep the anxiety from running me over. It pretty much owned me last time, I'm not proud to say.

But I came across this quote yesterday in my online wanderings, and it really seemed to have my name on it. Iain Duguid has this to say:

"God has not promised to give us the grace to face all of the desperate situations that we might imagine finding ourselves in. He has promised to sustain us only in the ones that he actually brings us into. He therefore doesn't promise that we will be able to imagine how we could go through the fire for his sake, but he does promise that if he leads us through the fire, he will give us sufficient grace at that time. Like manna, grace is not something that can be stored up for later use. Each day receives its own supply."

I honestly had not thought of that in quite this way before, in spite of all the lilies of the field and the manna and the direct statements like "Do not worry" that speak over and over from the pages of Scripture about how we'll have what we need when we need it. I've been acting like I have to have all the answers in advance, which is ridiculous. I'd love to say that this epiphany will drastically change the way I walk through this situation this time around, will make me do it better, but I can't promise that. Thankfully, grace also means that I don't have to.