Home again, Home again...

My cousin Jason will be here this morning with his two little girls for 2 weeks. Jason was more like a brother to my sister and I growing up , as he felt more like one of our family than his own. He is on leave from another tour (voluntary) during this war. He works in intelligence and most of his work he cannot speak about , and a lot of it , believe me , you don't want to know. He spends many countless days and nights alone in his own little room looking at endless codes and correspondence from those planning on hurting us here and those living here already with their plans in motion. His job does not make him happy, he does it for the continued safety of his girls and those he loves.
He returned to his post in Afghanistan after being home for a year and a half. He was married and had a baby girl, and realized that he was needed for our country and for his families continued security financially and emotionally. So he returned for a year and came home to his wife to father another little girl. when the youngest was barely 1 he and his wife who was only 20 to his 31 decided to get divorced. She was too young to be tied down with the whole wife and mother scenario and wanted to enjoy her youth. This was a horrible disappointment for the man whom risked his life because he felt he should to better his family. And an even greater disappointment to come home from a war and not being able to live with your little girls that mean everything to you.
So Jason decided to change the direction of his life. He knew that if he returned voluntarily for 18 months he would be done for good. Have enough money for a house for him and his daughters. And a chance to be there for his daughters. So he left for Iraq to continue to search for those who try to harm us here.
Two months after he left he calls home to speak with his daughters and he hears them call someone else daddy. The girls mother got married to a man she met while Jason had been gone. Yeah within 2 months she was remarried and having the girls call another man daddy. Claiming that daddy didn't want to be around them so she had to find them a new one. Can you imagine how this would feel to a man away at war. There to make life better for his kids. She told his girls to call him Jason , not daddy any longer. He was devastated.
He has now been in for 14 months of the 18 he promised. He will be picking up his girls in Texas from their mother and her new husband, and bringing them here to NY. He is so proud of them. He wants nothing more than to have them with him. And I feel so horrible that his immature ex has made this so hard for him. This is not one sided. I have listened (heard) them on the phone discussing the children and their life. And I can't believe just HOW immature she really is. She is beautiful and sweet in her own way , but unbelievably selfish and naive. You would think being a mother would make you change your way of life for a good reason. She thinks the kids take up too much of her time , and that she really wants to go out and do all the things she hasn't been able too. I can't even comment on all the ridiculously immature things that she has said and done that I have heard first hand , let alone Jason's accounts of her behavior.
Good grief I could go on forever.... but at least for the next few weeks he can be here with his "real" family. My parents and sister and I welcome him home from that awful place. His beautiful , sweet little ones are such an enormous reflection of the Jason we remember as kids. I want to thank him and everyone else that is away from those they love , doing things that I would/could never do. I am thankful that he is coming home to visit safe and well and that its not us visiting him to put him to rest. Life is precious and short and we need to take advantage of the time we have together. So I will be enjoying my short and precious amount of time with Jason and his girls and I will be thankful that he chose to share his time with us. We will always love and appreciate him and what he does for us without even asking. Just like i appreciate what all the other men and women are doing for us there that don't even know all the people they are really affecting here back home.