Marys_ThankYou

A Thank You from Bryan's Mom

As you all remember, in 2007 everyone was so incredibly generous by bringing numerous items to be shipped to our troops over in
Iraq, specifically my nephew Bryan. We are hoping he will be home by June 2008, but in the meantime we were able to ship Bryan
and his Unit numerous boxes over the past year filled with everything from snacks to toiletries - and he was so appreciative. My
sister Mary, Bryan's Mom wrote a special thank you to everyone - but I wanted to thank you all personally from your friends at JABA's
Pig Roast!

Thank you from Bryan’s mom…

As so many of you know, there are so many times in life when it is so wonderful and rewarding to be a “mom”.

Then there are the times when it is difficult to be a “mom”… like…

		when they are babies and they are sick and they can’t tell you what is wrong, you cry for them
		when they are teenagers trying to find their way and they are struggling with who they are, you cry for them
		when they experience their first heartbreak from love, you cry with them
		when they struggle to become young adults and they try to find their way and sometimes the way is difficult and you
		see the pain of growing up in their eyes, you cry for them and with them.

And then there are times like these, when they are far away in a dangerous place, fighting for their country, believing in what
they are doing, dedicating and sacrificing their lives for us, living under conditions that we cannot possibly imagine, but doing it
all the same.

Then when they lose someone who is fighting with them and you hear the pain in their voice, you try hard from far away to
comfort them, and then when you hang up the phone you cry for them, but you do not want them to know how worried you are
because you do not want them to take one moment away from their safety worrying about how you feel.

But every moment you pray for them to come home safely, every moment you pray that nothing will happen to the little baby you
brought into this world.

And as a MOM you feel so very proud of what they are doing.

And then comes these moments. . . when the generosity and love of family, friends and of people you do not know tells you that
you are not alone, that there are so many who care and who will give what they can to help your child along this difficult and
dangerous road that they are traveling on…

So I want to say THANK YOU to all of you from not only myself, his mom, but my husband, his step dad, my daughter, his sister
and all of my family… thank you to those who made my sons road a little easier to travel on, and thank you for knowing that he
not only has his “mom” standing there watching over him but also so many wonderful caring new friends!

Love and thanks to all of you

Bryan in Disney during an all too brief leave
in January. Here he is with (from left to
right) his wife Celia, sister Meaghan, Mom
Mary and Step Dad Michael. For more, scroll
down.

Sgt. Bryan P. McMahon

Bryan's Unit

Mary's letter is below, but I wanted to let everyone know - BRYAN IS HOME!!
Here are some pictures of his homecoming! WE LOVE YOU BRYAN!!
Click on pictures to see larger view!