It's been a long autumn so far. For whatever reason, this one has felt really hard. I've been wearing my Gold Star pin for the last few days--no one really notices (or at least says anything) except the people who already knew about Thomas. And even Maria says that she used to really love this time of year until . . .

*****
For our trip to Fort Lewis, we made our flight reservations on Alaska Airlines. They have a non-stop from Dulles to Sea-Tac which seemed more humane for the non-flyers among us. Also, it got us to Washington earlier in the day so we would have time to visit friends and family before any official events. Thomas's friend David and his wife Amber had been assigned to escort us which seemed logical and right. Actually, a lot of this is kind of hazy which I'm afraid might have been true if I'd written it the week after these events. It was a very emotional time and trying to face Washington state without Thomas was really daunting to me. However. We pulled up our socks and went.

Flying out, it was Richard, Maria, Matthew and me. Anna had to take a later flight due to work. We could not all sit together so Richard and Matthew had seats a few rows in front of Maria and me. For inflight entertainment, the flight attendants passed out what looked like DVD players to each passenger for ten dollars apiece. When she got to us, I asked her if she could tell me how my son was doing as he was very upset about flying. I also told her about the event we were about to attend. She did not charge us for the DVD players and she took good care of Matthew for the rest of the flight, bless her.

We also got boxed breakfasts on that flight: enclosed was what looked like a prayer card with a picture of a beautiful sunset on a beach and these words:

Give thanks to the Lord,

for He is good;

His love endures forever.

PSALM 107:1