Early Tuesday morning ::

my brother left with his Army unit on their long trip to Kandahar, Afghanistan ::

Last week, my dad wrote these words on his blog: “It somehow rolls off your lips different [ly] when you say, ‘I am sending my son off to war.’ God be with them all.” He was talking about the last few moments he had with my brother before leaving the bus station in Greenville, SC, from where Chad traveled back to Fort Bragg to report back in from his leave. 

Chad’s tour is for one year. He will see places I’ve never seen. He will do things I’ve never done. And I will never understand the magnitude of of his experience. It doesn’t feel real.