It is so strange how life works.  I love it when I see things come full circle.  In an earlier post here on the blog I shared with you why in this day and age I wasn’t on Facebook.  I said, blame in on Napolean Dynamite!  Because in the film the famous line “your mom goes to college” was literally what my son had to deal with on a daily basis when he and I were going to university together.  While I had joined Facebook in its infancy on the urging of other nerdy students looking for study groups, I quickly signed off when my son’s fraternity brothers thought it would be funny to “friend me”. 

Years went by and my life was certainly not worse off due to my lack of social media involvement. Then a few years ago, at the request of my daughter, I joined Instagram.  Not that I posted much myself, but she said she didn’t have time to email me pics of my granddaughter so if I wanted to see pics, I could see them on her Instagram feed.  It wasn’t until I started this blog that I joined Twitter and Snapchat.

Lo and behold, I finally went back to Facebook at the end of October 2016.   Boy has it sure changed.  I don’t even recognize it.  Literally, my head melts sometimes looking at all the bells and whistles that weren’t involved in Facebook back in 2005.  I’m still finding my feet with it, but to be honest, I haven’t given it much of a chance.  However, I am glad I am back on it, if for only one reason.

As I mentioned before my son has been on a 9 month military deployment.  Not the first, but they are never easy!  It is often hard to convey what it is like to have a child that has come from your body be so far away in a war zone and be totally helpless to do anything about it.  But yesterday, thanks be to God,  he returned.  I wasn’t allowed to be there to greet him in person and give him a hug, but I was given a Facebook Live link.   And as I sat in the living room in the middle of the night I logged on to see the homecoming.  In pitch darkness except the flicker of light from my laptop, I thought, wow isn’t this something?!

The video was only 15 minutes and I actually never saw my son on it. But I saw all the troops marching in, I heard the military band and a speech by one of the top commanders welcoming everyone.  I cried tears, happy tears, that my son and all those in uniform were back safe and sound.  I have prayed every day until my hands felt like they were glued together.  I lit candles every Sunday in church, no matter where in the world I happened to be, hoping the flames would touch the sky.  I longed for the day he would return.

Then at 4:15 am my son called me on the phone. “Hey Mom”.  My heart actually stopped beating for a moment.  We didn’t talk long.  He was tired but he sounded good.  For me, I was comforted knowing he is no longer in harm’s way.   It doesn’t matter that he is 31.  Our kids are always our kids.  It is a natural mother’s instinct to want to protect them.  And no matter what anyone can say about social media, and specifically about Facebook, it was literally a link for us.  One I wasn’t sure I would embrace.  But I did and am just marveling at how it has all come full circle.

I want to say thanks to all of you who sent up a prayer or positive thought during these nine months.  I appreciate it so much,  more than I can express in words.

Circle of LOVE,

YDP