~Christmas Cards Update~

I've heard from two of my contacts - one in Iraq, & one in Afghanistan, letting me know that the Christmas cards that were shipped to them arrived safe & sound. The email below is from one of my contacts in Afghanistan. This base received enough Christmas cards so that every soldier on base --including our Coalition partners-- will get a card from us back here at home. :-) That just thrills me to no end!!!!!!!!

Kathy

We received the cards and gave them to the Chaplain to hand to all the soldiers on Christmas day. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness.

Happy Holidays.

SSG ****

Sounds like the Chaplain is gonna be BUSY, BUSY, BUSY on Christmas Day! I'm so glad, too, that they will be handed out on Christmas Day & not before... I want them to have at least one special moment on Christmas Day, something to set it apart from the other 364 days of the year. :-)

Anyway, I just wanted to share with y'all - the cards ARE arriving, and they ARE appreciated. Thank y'all, again, so much for everything y'all did to make this card drive such a success!

As as side note: I found out a couple days ago that one of the soldiers (the son of a friend of a friend) that we sent about 600 of the Christmas cards to for his unit was brought home by the Red Cross due to a family emergency... please keep that soldier & his family in prayer. I've had two of the letters I sent him (before I found out) returned to me. On the package of Christmas cards, I did put "Redirect to unit chaplain" on the customs form, so I am HOPING against hope that they really DO redirect to the chaplain and the cards get handed out. I know most of the time this works; however, I've also heard of packages being returned to sender nonetheless. Hopefully, the Chaplain will get the cards & give 'em out - but if not, if I do get 'em back... well, I'll just hang on to 'em for next year.

Stay tuned - the information about the Valentine's Day card drive will be posted in the next few days.