I am way behind on blogging client sessions, but I just have to hop on here and tell you about an amazing thing that happened in Morrison today.

As a native to Morrison, I am well aware of how small it is. In high school, I couldn’t wait to get out. In college, ditto. I am not going to lie–I still have the itch to live in the city sometimes. But, now that I have children, especially, I really appreciate a lot of things about little old Morrison. One of them is the sense of community. You just do not find this is larger areas. I know they have neighborhoods and so forth, but it’s not the same as the whole town gathering together for a cause. We’ve had numerous instances in my lifetime where this town has pulled together…off the top of my head, when a 5th-grade boy was struck by lightning on the playground last year, several times when someone has had a life-threatening illness or disease, and most recently, today, when a beloved soldier returned home.

Corporal Joseph Brewer returned home today from a deployment to Afghanistan. They say that nothing spreads faster than gossip, but a viral Facebook posting of the good kind, fliers around town, and the local media all helped to spread the word in just two days and hundreds of people lined the streets to watch Joe and his family parade through town.

Joe’s wife, Chelsea, is Evan’s swim coach, so Evan was excited to be a part of the welcome-home parade and to see “BayLeigh’s dad.” BayLeigh, who is on the swim team with Evan, is the oldest of Joe’s four daughters. Shortly before their anticipated arrival, we set up lawn chairs in the shade of a friend’s yard along the parade route with flags at the ready. We were joined by several other kids and their families.

Shortly after the group photo, sirens announced the arrival of the caravan including firetrucks, the patriot guard, the Brewers, and several cars of friends and family.

I know not everyone believes in the war, but believing in it or not does not diminish the sacrifice this soldier made for YOU. He missed an entire year of his daughters’ lives, the birth of one of his daughters, and other events too numerous to list. Gathering together to cheer and wave flags as he drove through town was a very small deed in comparison to what this man and his family all gave for us in the past year.