July.13.09

Dear Charlie:

I read your blog and felt compelled to respond.  I am too a veteran and lost my legs outside of Fallujah, I know what it is to question what is happening to you, to look down and find your legs blown off, to wonder if you are going to make it.  I am familiar with the pain and the surgeries, but you can overcome this, you do not have to become a prisoner to the pain or the pity.

Perhaps what I am writing is going to upset you, but I can sit around feeling that your world has ended or you can get back to living.  I understand the pain, but we can not live by that pain.

I am not trying to preach at you, but what I am trying to do is reach out to you, because I know what war can do to you, I know what it is like to spend months upon months going through treatments, being fitted for prosthetics, using a chair.  When I first came home my little girl Kayleigh was scared of me, or of what had happened to me. 

I am not going to lie to you and tell you that one day magically things just get better, that the inner scars are gone, what I am saying is that with faith and hope and the support of those we love there comes a point when we no longer feel defined by what we lost.

I hope you don't get upset at what I am saying, but as I said I feel it was necessary, and continue blogging it is a great release.

Love In Christ

SGT Shilah Winslow~