A blessed Christmas

This Christmas was a very blessed one for us. Our favorite "gifts" this Christmas were not the typical material ones...and include the following:

• Having good health this Christmas season.
• Being together with daughter Cindy, son-in-law Mike, and our three grandkids.
• Being very proud of our daughter Cindy and the healthy lifestyle she has chosen for her family.
• Knowing that Cindy spent many, many, many loving hours on a wonderful cross stitch she is doing for us (not quite done yet). It is of an eagle in front of the American flag and is gorgeous.
• Having grandkids that appreciated the gifts I had made for them...3 year old Matthew aka Wilson rolling on the floor to check out the feel of his new "gramma blanket" was precious.
• Knowing Cindy and her family is so supportive of our veteran's causes that they saved quarters and dimes for several months to save up $110 and sponsor a wheel chair for disabled Vietnamese children.
• Having friends and family sponsor to date a total of 13 wheel chairs for disabled Vietnamese children (they still need more !)
• Having a number of friends who are working on knitting & crocheting leprosy bandages for the leprosy villages in Vietnam.
• Having good neighbors who watch our home while we are "on the road" exploring from time to time (thank you Barbara !)
• The ability to be involved in the personal effects program of TOP (Tour of Peace) Vietnam Veterans. In just 2 months, we have already been able to match up and help in the reunion of nearly 40 dog tags with the families of the veterans who wore them while serving our country in Vietnam.
• Having Cindy helping us with the dog tag project.
• Having a group of great friends and family who read our blog and keep up on our activities.
• It goes on and on but we are finding more and more how little the material things matter.

Hope you all are equally blessed during this holiday season and also the year to come !

Thanks for caring enough to check us out and follow our adventures here.

The Joy of Giving

Last weekend when we visited Vancouver Cindy gave me a very large box of skeins of yarn. It was stuff she had gotten on "freecycle" which is an online group where they pretty much exchange things they do not need any longer.

It was not until I got it home and sorted that I realized how much was there (must have been about 50 skeins...many of them still in packaging). I bagged it up and took it to my Thursday "group"...these ladies gather every Thursday at a local community hall to share their projects, ideas, support and friendship. The bags of yarn were a big hit and I know that many of the ladies were able to take home yarn for projects that they would not otherwise have been able to afford.

From there I took the remaining 25 or 30 skeins to a place called the "Kids Zone". It is located in Depoe Bay and is a non-profit after school activity center for school age kids. I had heard lots of good things about what they do with the kids (music lessons, craft projects, reading tutoring, etc) and also that they had some kids who were learning to knit. I just happened to stop by when the main players (director, activity director, etc) were there having a planning meeting. The welcome was overwhelming. They will definitely put the yarn to good use. They said they have many kids with busy hands that want such things to work with. Also got to talking to them and there is even a possibility that I can get the kids working on knitting or crocheting leprosy bandages for Vietnam. They said there is one young man that just keeps knitting this long row of stitches...like a very long scarf. I thought instantly of the bandages which have to be 48 inches long. I need to go back there and take them bandage instructions so they can see what can be done.

This day had not promised "warm fuzzies" but I definitely got them out of finding such good recipients for Cindy's big box of yarn. A big thank you to her for passing it on...or "paying it forward" which she has done a lot lately.

Follow up to Weekend with the Grandkids

I see by looking at my blog that I owe you an update on the results of our weekend with the grandkids. Cindy and Mike had headed out to spend two nights away...for the first time since Jenna was born 5 years ago. This was a get away that was far overdue.

Their destination was first Hood River and then further East up the Columbia River gorge to a nice hotel owned by Cindy's employer. There they had a nice Christmas party and adult "sleepover" as the grandkids would call it.

Well this weekend was the same one that we got hit with a BIG ice storm all up and down the Columbia River gorge and in the Vancouver/Portland area. I really sweated that one out until I knew that Cindy and Mike had managed to travel West on I-84 before the worst of the storm had hit. It took them hours to get the last few miles home but they were able to return and join us in supervising the kids who were having a ball getting thoroughly wet and cold playing in the snow and ice. When kids see white outside...they seem to lose all sense of reason.

Anyway, we had a nice weekend. Cindy said all she expected was survival and we made that. I even survived a single handed trip (Gary chickened out) to the Dollar Store with all three kids to help them buy for parents and siblings. Matthew was the most entertaining in his Christmas purchases. He bought a sack of trail mix for his father and said "If he does not like it, I can eat it !" When we got home he wrapped it (using masking tape on all his packages of course) but I soon found him hiding in a corner with it like the temptation was about to overcome him. I never did hear if that trail mix made it to Christmas Day or not...oh, well it is the thought that counts !

Due to the ice, we ended up staying in Portland an extra day. Once the motor home ran out of propane, we knew we had to move it or have it freeze up. We were thankful the next morning to have it thaw enough that we were only faced with slush and lots of road debris (from sanding) on the way home.

A Weekend of Togetherness

This is night one of the big grandparent "sleepover". We drove our motor home to daughter Cindy's house and parked in the driveway in preparation for the departure of Cindy and Michael for a long deserved get away weekend by themselves. I am living in the house with the three grandkids while Gary uses the motor home as his get away place when the noise starts to close in on him. Only problem was tonight the kids kept sneaking out to the motor home to "visit" with Grandpa. Neat bonding times for us all.

One activity we have planned is a trip to the Dollar Store so they can each shop for their parents and siblings. I did it by myself with them last year and was looking forward to Gary's assistance this year as 3 year old Matthew (or Wilson as Gary calls him) is a handfull in a store. Tonight we were discussing our shopping trip over dinner and Jenna came up with the idea that they could also buy surprise gifts for Grandpa if he was not with them...Gary really perked up at that but I am not going to let him get out of a trip through the dollar store with his 3 year old grandson that easily !

On another note, I get daily updates from Jess DeVaney, president of TOP, regarding dog tags he is sending back to veterans or their families (if the veteran was KIA or deceased since the war) as a result of the research and letter writing that Cindy and I have done over the last 6 weeks. Most reports are heartwarming and they are very appreciative that they are receiving an extra "Christmas gift" this year. I love the feeling that it is touching so many lives and look forward to getting back to doing more research...plus when the TOP group comes back from their March trip they will be bringing back another 200 to 300 freshly recovered dog tags to be worked on. Ah...retirement !

Enjoy this season everyone.

Linda

Christmas Blessings in my Patriotic Flag Sweatshirt

Yesterday we went to the Portland VA for medical appointments for Gary. This visit was also my planned opportunity to hopefully "play Santa" for some disabled veterans.

As we entered the building, I wore my American Flag sweatshirt and carried with me 6 of my "Veteran's Blankets". These blankets are either a fleece panel or two yards of print fleece with nice wide satin binding sewn all around. To that is added a label made of patriotic fabric which says "Thank you for your service...Linda & Gary Stocker Vietnam '68 - '69." This year we also included a flag card which contains the message as follows: "Thank you for your service to our country. Please accept the comfort of this blanket as a token of our appreciation."

I was not sure how I was going to do the blanket distribution but decided to just "wing it". After dropping Gary off at the dental lab for his appointment, I happened to strike up a conversation with a VA employee in one of the halls. She was commenting on my bag overflowing with my special blankets. I explained to her my mission and she was immediately caught up in the passion of my quest. Next thing I knew she was taking me on a walking "tour" of the maze of VA medical buildings.

First we checked the social workers office - no answer to our knocks on the door so we decided to do our own thing. Her recommendation was to pay a "visit" to an adjacent residential unit where veterans stay while they are there going through cancer treatments. They were independent living units and we went from door to door just knocking. It must have been treatment time as we only found one patient in their unit. However, he was moved by my gesture and very appreciative of the blanket. He could barely talk...partly from his throat cancer and partly from the emotion of the moment. It was explained to me that the blanket would be especially appreciated because the cancer treatment causes them to feel "chilled" all the time. Those were the warm fuzzies I needed in my heart to know I had done the right thing.

Next we headed back to the main hospital area and I was glad I had a guide to negotiate the maze of walkways with me...bread crumbs would not have "cut it". Once I started to diverge to another residential type area and she said she was going to make sure she took me back to the dental clinic where Gary was so we would not spend the rest of the day trying to locate one another. Upon arrival, I checked on Gary who was still waiting for his dental treatment and told him what direction I was headed and when I expected to be back.

From there I explored until I located the oncology area and followed the signs that said "Patient Rooms / Nurse's Station". Once they knew my mission, the nurses were extremely helpful. At my request, they scanned their patient board and directed me to the Veterans who rarely have visitors and might most appreciate my attention and my gift.

As I entered each room, there was a look of anticipation and then appreciation as I explained my gift and the fact that I was the wife of a Vietnam Veteran. It was heart warming and I quickly went through the 6 blankets I had brought in. When I went back to my car for the last 6 blankets, I returned to find a couple cancer patients lined up along the hall waiting "transport" to somewhere for treatment...the first man said "Those are very pretty blankets"...I thought he wanted one but found I had already given him one (guess I did not recognize him with clothes on) but his statement was his way of saying thanks again. He also told me about a buddy in another room that he felt should have one as well. So I was off again to personally visit and deliver more.

I held back a few for a project the nurses had told me about when I first arrived. It is called "Bereavement Packets". It seems that the nurses like to have something special to use to warm and comfort the patients in their last few hours of life. Then after they "pass" that blanket goes into a "Bereavement Packet" that is given to their families as a remembrance of them. My heart soared at the thought of my blankets being utilized in this way and being so cherished.

When I next saw Gary my arms were empty and he asked where my bag went...I told him I gave out all the blankets and my arms were empty but my heart was very full...Oh the power of giving !

I got my Christmas blessings early and already am planning on what I can do for next year !

Thanks for reading...may your Christmas season be blessed with glad tidings.

Linda aka Santa

Touching Lives More Than We Know

I am still "processing" my feelings about something I just discovered online but wanted to share it through the tears in my eyes.

I had gone to the site for the Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans event which we attended in Branson this past June. One of the features on the site now is stories and messages written by people who were there. It is not just a free for all of people posting anything they want to but you have to submit your story, have it reviewed and they post only those they feel deserve sharing.

Some of you may have read my account of the Veteran's parade that Gary participated in...but somehow reading about it from someone else's viewpoint hit us REALLY HARD...here is how the story was told by the wife of a veteran from Wisconsin:

Where do I begin. I am the proud wife of a United States Marine that served in Vietnam from 1966-1967. Nothing can begin to compare to the wonderful time we had in Branson, MO in June while attending the Operations Homecoming U.S.A.

The parade was awesome, nothing like I have ever seen before in all the parades that I have watched my husband march in. There was a women across the street from where I was watching the parade that constantly was cheering and yelling, "Welcome Home, We are so proud of you". People hugging these vets as they came down the parade route was a site that will long remain in my memory. Boy let me tell you, I had tears during most of that parade.

One very touching experience for me happened during the parade. There was quite a long break in the parade and everyone was wondering what had happened. All of a sudden up over the hill came a group of veterans. In the front was a vet that was walking with two crutches. He had apparently walked the entire parade route and seemed to be determined to finish that parade. I looked around our area of spectators and I didn't see a dry eye anywhere. That man received a well deserved route of applause as he walked by. That is a site I will never forget.

Well, (look at the picture collage on my blog header) that man on 2 crutches who had such an impact was my dear veteran husband, Gary, and he walked the full 1.7 miles of that parade. He would tell you though that he walked it not for himself but for his comrads. He also was "moved" by the support of the other 6 or 8 veterans of the 101st Airborne who moved alongside him protecting him throughout the entire route. Once they finished the course, he turned around to thank them for their support and found they had all disappeared.

About 45 minutes later, Gary entered a restaurant nearby and was further humbled by the sound and sight of the entire restaurant of people standing and applauding his determination, accomplishment and service to our country.

Let's each one of us make sure that we do not wait even 35 days (instead of the 35 years the Vietnam Veterans have waited) to welcome home and thank our current soldiers and veterans who have stayed the course for us and our country !