He was the best of the best that our country has to offer

Well its here love day/ Daves day. And i realized something today , which is that i thought about David and Deedy all day. I came out into the kitchen this morning drinking my coffee and spending a time of reflection as it seems i always do on this day now...and probably always will.
I reflect on so many things , that i still pray faithfully for Deedy who is raising their 3 kids one of whom is ready to graduate high school. I reflect on the tray of tacos and burritos i made the day it was my "turn" to take Deedy and the kids dinner after the loss...how i drove so slow going to their house because i was trying to compose myself, wasn't even supposed to be driving yet as pillow wasn't even a week old and i was recovering from my csection still. How very "real" everything felt. How in that time and place i grew up and yet i thought i was grown already...how much i uphold the memory of Deedy being ridiculously strong and even being there for all of US when in my mind i couldn't even stand up straight because i was suddenly terrified of the fact that there was a very real chance that Highlander could die. Dave died and he was larger than life....he wasn't even in Iraq but about 3 days before his light was turned out.
I lost 51 pounds that year.
I returned to church full time.
I had another baby
We lost more people
Everything i knew before was gone
and here i am and the daughter who was just born at the start of that deployment is now 6 and another a third deployment is on our horizon same war different year...
and you know i go to Deedys facebook page and i sit there and nothing comes, i type i erase i type again.I settle on some heart in the sky picture even though it is inadequate of how i really feel still....after all these years ...
I am truly and deeply thankful, and grateful on so many levels for the sacrifice of this American family,who like so many are living every day without their loved ones because they answered the call that was asked of them.
Every year i reread the article Joe Galloway posted about David and its always the last lines that stay with me
"He was the best of the best that our country has to offer. All America should mourn his loss."
And i do Joe i really do mourn his loss and i always will.
What i take away every year from this loss is the acknowledgement that life is so short, none of knows when we will be called home.
It terrifies me and drives me to my knees in prayer for my own husbands safety, and makes me rejoice and give praise for men like SFC David Salie who continued to head into dangerous situations without a second thought because well he really believed in what he did. He was truly faithful.
and so i close this as i probably will many more years with a heartfelt teary eyed thankful heart, a heart that loves deeply and will not soon forget why today is Daves day.
-a copy of full article by Joe Galloway can be found here 
http://www.military.com/Opinions/0,,Galloway_021605,00.html
s.o.t.d.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13