Blest with sons

People say that a six month deployment just flies by, especially when you have kids to keep you busy. Well, I have one thing to say to that: TThhhppppppp!!!
When half of your “one flesh” is halfway around the world, time drags, creeps, stumbles, and plods. If I’m lucky, time occasionally breaks into a casual stroll. But at least it keeps on going, however slowly. We’ve entered the home stretch, with not more than a month to go! My husband’s homecoming still seems a long way away, but at least I can daydream about making the Welcome Home signs, and think about what it will be like to hug him. (sigh)

All that aside, I ran across this story on the deployment website and wanted to pass it along. The story is about LCpl Jonathan Almansur and was written by Gunnery Sergeant Mark E. Bradley. These fine Marines are on ship with my fine husband! Back in June, a small group of Marines and Sailors from my husband’s ship, my husband among them, went to Saudi Arabia for training exercises with the Saudi military. LCpl Almansur couldn’t help but wonder about his father, a Saudi native whom he had not seen since he was four years old. He knew that his father had been a Saudi officer at one time…

After Almansur arrived however, he quickly learned that his last name, clearly displayed on his nametag, and strong Saudi physical traits were stirring up curiosity among the host military officers.

During a weapons display one morning, Almansur said he was bombarded with more questions about his background and his father than he was about his M2 .50 caliber machine gun displayed in front of him.

Without any current knowledge of his father, Almasur continued to answer with what he knew. He thought all the questions were simply out of curiosity and did not believe anything would come of the situation.

It was not until Almansur was introduced to the chief of naval operations, Admiral Fahd Bin Abdullah Bin Mohammed, that he realized the reunion was not only possible, but also imminent.
The admiral, who is also a Saudi prince, asked Alamansur if he would like to meet his father. “I said ‘yes I would’ and he said ‘it will be done, ‘” Almansur said. “At that point I believed it would happen,’ he said.

It turned out that his father, Abdulrahman D. Al-Mansur, lived very near to where the Marines were training. After a few phone calls and coordination on both sides, the meeting was arranged at the nearby Intercontinental Hotel.

As the reunion approached, Almansur wondered what he would say to his father as a wave of emotions came over him. He had already called his wife and told her what was happening.
“She was worried. She told me it might not turn out the way I want it to. I told her I am not expecting anything… that way I won’t be let down,” he said.

Among his emotions were anger and resentment, he said. He could not get the notion out of his head that his father had abandoned him and his mother all those years ago, he said.
But after they met, the anger subsided and was replaced by understanding.

“I learned that things were out of his control,” he said. “I tried to look at things through his eyes - how hard it must have been for him to leave a son.”

Almansur accompanied his father to his home where he found out he had eight siblings. He said the language barrier made the introduction a little awkward, but he soon built a bond with his brothers and sisters. “I went from one little brother in the United States to eight more brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

He was surprised to see that things were not as different as he expected at his father’s home. “My brothers and sisters were on the floor playing Play Station II and there was a basketball goal in the back yard,” he said.

The best part of the reunion, Almansur said, was being able to talk with his father and finally let go of the resentment that stemmed from the unanswered questions that had lingered in his mind all his life. “Now I know all the things I didn’t before,” he said.
He called his mother in Georgia from his father’s home and told her what was happening. “She cried happy tears and told me she was very happy for me,” he said.