![]() ![]() But he put so much thought into the beautiful messages he wrote, things like:īe humble about your accomplishments, work harder than the man next to you, it is all right for boys to cry. His grammar was not perfect and his handwriting at times suggested that he was tired or rushed. So, late into the night in Iraq, after he had completed dangerous and often deadly missions, your dad returned hungry and exhausted to the relative calm of his room and wrote to you before he slept. Most of all, he wanted you to know how much he loved us. He wanted to tell you how to deal with disappointment, to understand the difference between love and lust, to remember to get on your knees and pray every day. He wanted you to know to pick up the check on a date, to take plenty of pictures on vacations, to have a strong work ethic, and to pay your bills on time. Writing it would be a way for your dad to help guide you through life if he did not make it home to us. We did a lot to prepare for the possibility that your father would miss out on your life, including finding out if you were a boy or a girl before he left he was thrilled to have an image of you in his mind and kept your sonogram pictures in a pocket in his uniform the whole time he was in Iraq.Īnd then there was the journal. I hoped he would write a few messages, perhaps some words of encouragement to you, though you were not yet born, in case he died before you knew each other. Even before he boarded that plane headed for danger, I worried that he would be killed. Army First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, had been preparing for the promise of your new life and for the possible end of his own. What I want to tell you is how the journal came to be and what it leaves unsaid about your father and our abiding love.īefore he kissed my swollen stomach and left for the war in December 2005, your father, U.S. You will know that he left a journal for you, more than two hundred pages long, which he handwrote in neat block letters in that hot, terrifying place. By then, you will know that your father was a highly decorated soldier who was killed in combat in October 2006, when a bomb exploded beneath his armored vehicle in Iraq. You are just ten months old now, but I am writing this for the young man you will be. If you are reading this book, it means that we got through the sorrowful years, somehow, and that you are old enough to understand all that I am about to tell you. Charles Monroe King and their infant son Jordan share a family photo. ![]()
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