A few weeks back, my husband sent me an email, asking if I'd ship him a cheap little ukulele. (Mind you, Josh Downs has never played the ukulelee before, but he's funny and random like that.)
So the next day, I picked up a uke, a few uke books, an electronic tuner and a pack of extra strings and headed down to the UPS store to ship it all.
Unfortunately, UPS couldn't insure it for me so instead, I asked them just to box it up (since I didn't have a big enough box at home) and decided I'd mail it through the Post Office. I was worried about the ukulele getting broken during shipping though, so I asked the UPS gal if she'd mind packing the uke in a box and then sticking that box inside of another bigger box for extra protection.
About 20 minutes later, the UPS gal appeared from the back room with a box big enough to ship a cello in and a bill for $35. (Apparently, chelo-sized boxes cost a lot of money.)
So I begrudgingly paid the $35 and schlepped towards the door with the ukulele packed inside a cello-sized box.
One of the UPS workers noticed my struggle and rushed to the door to open it for me. I thanked him and as I headed to my car, he hollered, "Tell your husband that even us small guys in Oregon are rooting for him!" (which made the $35 I had just spent to pack a ukulele in a cello-sized box a little more palatable.)
And then I drove to the Post Office, schlepped my way inside with the cello-sized box and began my wait in line.
After a few minutes of waiting, I heard a woman's voice behind me ask, "Is someone you love overseas?"
I turned to see a sweet, graying woman in her mid-60's looking at the shipping label on my cello-sized box.
I told her that my husband was in Afghanistan and next thing you know, we were sharing the details of our lives.
She asked if we were able to communicate with Josh very often and I explained to her that we were able to talk on the phone, send emails and even Skype occasionally. She mentioned how lucky we were for that kind of technology and shared with me how after her husband had left for Vietnam (just three months after they got married) that she eagerly awaited each and every hand-written letter she received from him, letting her know that he was safe. She went on to share that her husband had recently lost mobility on the right side of his body due to old injuries sustained in Vietnam and that he's unable to play the guitar anymore because his body can't support the weight of it and wondered if maybe she should get him a ukelele too.
Before we had time to finish our coversation though, a clerk waved me over.
So I schlepped up to the counter with my cello-sized box.
Turns out it costs $147 to ship a cello-sized box to Afghanistan.
Truth be told, I was so ready to be done with the whole ordeal that I was willing to pay whatever it took so I could get home and get back to work, but then I envisioned my frugal husband keeling over dead after noticing the $147 shipping label affixed to the cello-sized box and knew I had to come up with another plan.
Apparently, the sweet, graying woman I had been talking with in line overhead our discussion because next thing I knew, she had moved in between me and the clerk like a protective mother-hen, saying "One-hundred and forty-seven dollars, how can that be?!?"
All three of us just stood there looking at each other for a few seconds and then we started discussing options. Eventually, we decided to take the smaller inside box with the ukelele in it, out of the larger, cello-sized box and measured/weighed it.
Turns out it only costs $28 to ship a ukulelee-sized box to Afghanistan.
I told the clerk that I needed to run out to my car really quickly to grab a couple more shipping labels (since the shipping labels I had were already stuck to the cello-sized box that I had paid $35 for and would no longer be using.)
So I ran out to my car, quickly grabbed the labels I needed (I printed up 50 labels awhile back with Josh's address on them so I can send him things whenever I want.) and as I walked back up to the counter, I noticed that the sweet, graying, mother-hen-of-a-woman was scurrying towards the exit.
I was kind of surprised that she didn't stop to say good-bye to me after sharing such a bonding experience so I turned towards the exit, waving my arms and hollering, "Good-bye and thank you and your husband for your service!"
When I turned back to the counter, the clerk said, "Do you know her?"
He looked kind of puzzled when I explained that I had just met her while standing in line and then he said, "Well, in all the years I've worked here, I've never seen anyone do this before, but she just paid to ship that ukelele to your husband."
And that was the first time I ever cried in a post office.
I spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about that sweet, graying, mother-hen-of-a-woman, how thoughtful her gesture was, how godly it was for her to leave the post office without wanting public acknowledgement for her act of kindness, how hard it must have been to be a young, newlywed with a husband serving his country in Vietnam at a time when there was very little gratitude being shown to service men and women and how difficult it must be to watch your husband paying the price for that service with failing health after 40 years of marriage.
It made me wish I could find her and hug her and tell her again how thankful I am for heroes like her and her husband.
And it made me think of how thankful I am for my own husband and all the kindness people have shown me and my kids since he deployed.
And it made me thankful for the technology that allows me to keep in touch with him so I don't have to spend weeks at a time, worried about his safety. (Though I know that isn't the case with all military families.)
It made me thankful that every Sunday, my husband is able to watch the same live church service that we are attending at 10:45 a.m. our time/11:15 p.m. his time. (I always sit in one of the front, center rows in the hope that he'll see me.)
It made me thankful that we get to talk to him on the phone really frequently, even if the connection is usually bad and there's an awkward lag time.
It made me thankful that my kids get to see their dad's face every now and then on Skype.
And that he can share photos via email.
And that when he accidentally shoots himself with a nail gun while working on a project at his base, I can show my kids the x-rays and all the other gory details so they can think their dad is the toughest dad in the whole-wide-world.
It stinks to have have him gone, but I'm thankful all the same.
And I want to pass along my thanks to another military wife in the same way that that sweet, graying, mother-hen-of-a-woman passed along her thanks to me...
So if you are a military wife with a husband that is currently deployed and would like a seat in the next round of my online Photographers' Workshop, please leave a comment in the comments section of this post with a few details about your husband, his deployment and anything else that you'd like to share. (I'll draw a winner by the end of the week.)
I can't thank you enough for your family's service.
(For anyone else who is wanting to take The Photographers' Workshop, registration is tonight at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time, here. Would love to have you join us!)
And if you're reading this Josh Downs...you are totally the toughest (and hottest) dad in the whole-wide-world.
Thanks for making all of us cry Miss Karen. God bless you and your family.
Posted by: Mary Edwards | October 04, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Hi Karen! My siter (Melissa Plantenga) has been fowarding your blogs on to me which I am very grateful. They make me laugh and cry but most of all it is nice to have someone who can write and share photos with such talent that also describe my daily challenges. My husband is also deployed to Afganistan and my boys and I miss him every day. Thank you for your service and your gift of words, stories and pictures. I would love to be added to your online Photography Workshop drawing. Hooah!
Posted by: Krista Young | October 04, 2011 at 11:18 AM
I was in tears - such a moving post. Then i saw the nail gun picture and had to just laugh out loud (and throw up in my mouth just a tiny bit). Karen, you are the best! Thank you for your honest and heart warming posts.
Posted by: Nona | October 04, 2011 at 11:18 AM
That post made me cry!! THANK YOU Josh Downs for all that you do for our country and THANK YOU Karen for holding your family together while he is gone. Absolutely LOVED this post! peace and blessings!!
Posted by: borcherding | October 04, 2011 at 11:39 AM
that is just about the sweetest thing I have ever heard...what a great lady she was....I wish you could find her, but I am sure SHE KNOWS
how much you appreciated that and you will go on to do things like that for others because of it, what a gift!
tara
Posted by: tara pollard pakosta | October 04, 2011 at 11:55 AM
Your post was so touching. I have a day care and one of my kiddos daddy is deployed. He wore a shirt the other day that said "you would be cranky too if your daddy was deployed", it broke my heart. Thank you Josh Downs and Jordan Johnson and all the men and women serving, god bless.
Posted by: Shannon | October 04, 2011 at 12:52 PM
Omgosh! I gasp and cried when I read about the woman who paid the shipment. That is AWESOME! Thank you to Josh and all the other men and women for their service, including your family and theirs. Thank you for sharing this story, and reminding me to pay it forward ;0)
Posted by: laceyA | October 04, 2011 at 12:57 PM
Wow! That is an awesome story and it's just as touching that you are paying it forward to another military wife. Love it!
Posted by: debbie susee | October 04, 2011 at 02:52 PM
Your post also made me cry and I am also thankful for the many kind people (like you) who not only listen to my deployment story but perform random acts of kindness exactly when the weight of the deployment trials feel heavy or I am just plain tired. I see the Lord's faithfulness when He puts the right people in our path at just the right time. :)
Posted by: Melissa Kuhlman | October 04, 2011 at 09:12 PM
your story made me teary eyed. kudos to Josh downs for serving your country!!! he really is a hero!
Posted by: Jona Panesa | October 04, 2011 at 11:42 PM
Oh man, I am crying too! I have been in your shoes and now am preparing for our son to head to Korea. It is SO hard to get stuff back and forth when you have a bunch of kids at home and any complicating factors. Good for you for making the effort. Good for her for helping you to do it!
Posted by: Kim @Starry Sky Ranch | October 05, 2011 at 05:00 AM
Well after reading this beautiful story with tears in my eyes, I think back to when my husband was in Viet Nam and how difficult it was for him, missing out on the birth of our daughter, no e-mails then, 3 weeks for a letter, calls with only an operator's assistance, and a very unappreciated military. Hopefully, by reading this beautiful story, everyone will go out and do something good for our servicemen. Bless your family!
Posted by: Carol | October 05, 2011 at 07:17 AM
Yup ... crying over hear too, and then almost throwing up when seeing Josh's thumb. He is totally tough to get through that and SO your husband for thinking to take a photo of it!
Blessings too, to the woman you met in the post office. I wish I could hug her for you!
Posted by: Lacey | October 05, 2011 at 08:21 AM
Yup ... crying over here too, and then almost throwing up when seeing Josh's thumb. He is totally tough to get through that and SO your husband for thinking to take a photo of it!
Blessings too, to the woman you met in the post office. I wish I could hug her for you!
Posted by: Lacey | October 05, 2011 at 08:21 AM
What a wonderful post/story. Seriously tearing up over the kindness of others. And I think that nail injury should qualify as an injury in action and he should be sent home. Much love to your family.
Posted by: Alison | October 05, 2011 at 09:22 AM
You are so playing with my heart strings. What a kind and generous woman you met at the post office. And now you are paying it forward with your photography class. Thank you for your generosity too. I am praying for your husband and all the husbands deployed to come home safely.
Leslee in MT
Posted by: Leslee Cotterell-Barrow | October 05, 2011 at 02:22 PM
Now that was a beautiful story - compassion, generosity, empathy, love...thank you so much for sharing. I have a photo just like yours. My hubby put a nail through his forefinger. He called me from the ER and texted the photo to me. Thank you Karen and thank you, Josh Downs. I am wishing this time would go a little faster for both of you.
Posted by: Nancy McPeak | October 06, 2011 at 06:13 AM
Btw- it looks like he missed the bone! Just another thing to be thankful for.
Posted by: Nancy McPeak | October 06, 2011 at 06:16 AM
I am so glad that my friend Erin Cobb's blog sent me your way! I am signed up for your class and am very much enjoying your blog. I will continue to read and cry (like now!) and enjoy your blog as if we were longtime friends. Wonderful.
Posted by: Anne Peters | October 07, 2011 at 04:33 PM
Okay, so the boys thought it was cool that you showed the xray, but when I scrolled to see the nail in his hand they both drew a deep breath. I cried, as usual, while reading. (I swear J thinks I'm looney when I read the blog) Deployments are tough. Although J isn't deployed right at this moment, he does get underway every other week. Three deployments (Navy) in 5 years is tough, but we've made it through. These weekly excursions seem like a cake walk. I don't even cry anymore, (okay, not after the first night of sleeping alone.) I love you both get to attend service "together". What I love most, though Karen, is your support of that HHBL (hunka hunka burnin love of a husband of yours). I love your love for him. For each other. For sticking it out in times like these. Thank you, Josh Downs. Thank you kids. Thank you Karen. From one military family to another. (I'd love a seat as well.)
Posted by: Tera Emmons | October 08, 2011 at 07:03 AM
Thanks to you and your husband for your service to our country. My husband has been in the navy for 19 years now, made 5 deployments to Iraq in that time. We've been married for 17 of those years. I was just a baby myself when we got married. While reading your post, I totally felt all those same emotions rush back that I felt while he was gone so many times. We didn't have internet back in the day, so we wrote each other a letter a day and sent them once a week. I would rush to the mailbox when I knew it was getting close to the day for me to get those letters, sometimes they even had pictures enclosed. It caused such joy and sorrow at the same time. Now days, my husband is working at a job that doesn't require him to be gone for months at a time. Next time I'm frustrated about him working late, I'll remember those days from years past and be thankful he's comeing home at all that night.
I wish you the best. God bless.
Posted by: Metaphase | October 08, 2011 at 07:32 AM
Oh my what a wonderful story and it brought tears to my eyes! I pray for those who are currently serving and thanks those who have served in the past.
And wow Josh is pretty tough, that hurts just looking at it!
Posted by: Carmen | October 08, 2011 at 07:58 PM
What a gorgeous story. I wish I had met with the same kindness, sadly I seem to have been on the receiving end of the opposite!!! We have a new build house and I have recently had to deal with a rather nasty, bullish builder who was less than pleasant. When I explained that I didn't need to be treated that way in my own home at a time when my husband was deployed overseas do you know the response I got? "well it is all very honourable and that but I really don't give a damn, it doesn't affect me does it"!!!!!! well you guessed it, I absolutely exploded and told him straight out how it effected him and how it pees me right off that my husband is spending 6 months away from his family in a war zone to protect ungrateful beings like him. hmmm it took me a good 24hrs to calm down. Still I have some wonderful friends around who do appreciate what my husband is doing and are more than willing to help me out. Love and best wishes to you and your family at this time, it isn't easy for any of us but acts like you experienced the other day definitely make it alot sweeter.
Posted by: Helen Shields | October 09, 2011 at 07:27 AM
Thank you for sharing your story. What an awesome lady! I am a Marine wife with 3 kids ages 9, 8 and 4. My husband isnʻt deployed right now but will be leaving for Afghanistan in February. He has done 3 deployments to Iraq and this will be his 2nd time in Afghanistan. Although this is #5 for us (#4 for my soon to be 5yr old DD) it doesnʻt ever get any easier but each one has been a learning experience and has definitely made me a stronger person. May god bless you and your family.
Posted by: RQ | October 09, 2011 at 09:40 PM
What a great story! Love that old woman.. so nice to hear there are good people out there. My husband is not deployed right now, but spent 1 year deployed to Baghdad, Iraq. It was our second year of marriage, and our second year living apart. We dind't have kids at the time, but it was a hard year without him...I worried everyday. He did come home safely, and got out of the active duty army. He is still enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard.
Posted by: Stephanie | October 10, 2011 at 07:50 PM
Being that I love all things medical...just how did they remove the nail and how is it healing?
Posted by: jersey Girl Anne | October 11, 2011 at 06:12 AM
I've been following your blog for a few years now and this is definitely one of my favorite posts. My heart is warmed with the thoughtfulness and gratitude that you were shown. There are still so many good people in the world.
Thank you for sharing with us.
Posted by: Dana F. | October 15, 2011 at 07:37 AM
I teared up and then I almost heaved up the contents of my stomach. OMG the nail through his thumb....GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH.
OMG the sweet lady in the post office, that is awesome. A friend of mine, a teacher, was in walmart shopping for supplies for her class out of her own pocket and a nice little old lady started a conversation with her, the subject came up that my friend was buying supplies for her classroom and the lady paid for everything. The sweetness and compassion of people tear my heart out.
My heart aches for you all because I know how much all of you are missing Josh. Thoughts and prayers for you all. I hope he's home soon.
Posted by: Denise Armbruster | October 18, 2011 at 12:17 PM
How sweet of that lady to pay it forward for you. I also was married less than a year when my husband shipped out to Viet Nam. Letters were precious those days. I found I was pregnant shortly after he left, so went through that pregnancy alone. It was difficult to adjust when he returned home to a wife AND a child. We were married for 25 years when the alcohol use and the PTSD finally was too much for me anymore and we divorced. I often wonder what it would have been like to have been able to stay in touch as you are and to have the understanding of PTSD that is now commonplace. Praying for Josh and for his safe return.
Posted by: pam | October 20, 2011 at 12:01 PM
okay Karen,
haven't been by for a visit in awhile and have been catching up and gosh darn it have tears down my face! I stopped and said a prayer for Josh Downs and for you and your family! the sacrifices that military families make are beyond words! Thank you!
Now my mouth is wide open with the sight of Josh Downs thumb! Crazy!
Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Suez | October 24, 2011 at 11:39 AM