Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 2242

Good Evening,

Another good day. Lynnette and I were able to spend almost 12 hours with David. Today was the first day that Catherine has left David's side all week. She had the opportunity to visit with a cousin of hers. We missed her but it gave me the opportunity to take care of David's needs in a way I haven't experienced thus far. David is becoming very independent and trying to do everything by himself.

He got a new phone today, so if any of you had his old phone number, call him. We spent a few hours plugging in phone numbers of the friends who had called and all of his family. The phone is a great new toy and he's really enjoying the newness.

In listening to one of his conversations, we were very touched by his words. He was talking to a close friend of his that is a dog trainer. In Afghanistan, there are soldiers that are assigned with a bomb sniffing dog. David's friend was only about 15 feet in front of David when he was injured. I am avoiding his name because I have not received permission to use it. What I am able to say is that he and his dog had just gone over the exact area that hit David. David's words to him were very interesting in that he made sure his friend knew that he had done everything right and that it must have just been David's time. David also assured his friend that he was fine, that he had just started a new chapter in his life, that he was truely looking forward to the future. David said "please let everybody know that I am not sitting here feeling bad for myself, I'm really enjoying this, what happened - happened, please let them know I'm fine and I'm healing well and being very well taken care of." I'm sure I've missed a few words but the jest of his comments were captured.

We took another trip around the hospital in his wheelchair. We tried to go into the Subway at the hospital to get him some lunch and their doors wouldn't even accomodate David's wheelchair. So, David sat in the doorway and placed his order. He is really quite fun at this stuff.

David completely dressed himself today but had to rest for a little while after the effort of dressing drained his energy for a few minutes. He still tried to complete the entire day with extremely few pain meds.

While we were sitting outside we met another mother of a wounded soldier. Her soldier is a medic and was hit with a mortar round. He didn't even know he was hit until someone yelled that the "Doc" was hit. He thought he was carrying his medical bag and when he heard that he was hit he looked and saw that the medical bag had been blown out of his hand and his arm was in terrible shape. He saw that his artery had been hit and he was losing a great amount of blood so he began first aid on himself as he felt himself going into shock. I don't know a great deal about the situation but I do know that his plans were to be a doctor of some kind. Incredibly, each day another hero is discovered - he has a fantastic attitude. When he saw his arm, just as David thought when he saw his own arm, he didn't think he would wake up after surgery with that arm still attached - but he did. He knows his future has just changed but he is very very optomistic and is very reassuring to his mother.

When we came back to the Bethesda Naval Lodge, there were new faces outside enjoying the night air. Their nephew and a group of his soldiers decided to take a brake under a tree in Afghanistan and the enemy had planned on such a break. He is now in critical care with half of his skull removed to help with his swolen brain. He lost a major amount of the left side of his body. I believe he came in with 10 other seriously wounded soldiers. They just keep coming and coming and coming.

When we hear all of these stories, we look at David smiling, programming his new phone, wearing his Jack Sparrow head wrap, feeding himself, talking and laughing with old friends, having complete control of his bodily functions, and on and on and on and on - we know and he knows how blessed he is. Hopefully his knowledge of bombs and the enemy and their strategies will lead him to a career that will be dedicated to helping us thwart the efforts of those trying to intimidate and kill and mame others for the sole purpose of money and power. I wish I had a skill that would be of value in this campaign.

I love what I'm able to do to help David but I still feel a bit helpless in the overall context of this war.

Just Know That We Love You!

Gordon