Veteran's Day

Today, as many of you know, is Veteran's Day. Ashamed as I am to admit it, I had never really thought anything in particular of Veteran's Day except as another day to put our flags outside. But after today, I plan to celebrate Veteran's Day for the rest of my life. Today at school, we had two assemblies dedicated to Veterans and rightly so. I cannot even begin to express the emotion I felt as I began to remember the sacrifices that so many men and women have made for our country. And what a blessing to have many of them return home! This is a blessing that, as one speaker pointed out to us, we fail to recognize and remember. We often talk of those men and women who gave their lives for our country (for good reason) and we forget to remember and thank those who served and are still alive. I know I am so grateful for the sacrifices made for us so that we can enjoy our freedoms, along with so many other amazing and wonderful things that other countries don't have. Even people who never saw combat served their country by being prepared, organized, and trained. What a special country we live in! I know not many people read my blog, but I just want to say Thank you to all the veterans out there. As a country, we are deeply indebted to your service.

Just some facts surrounding Veteran's Day:

Veteran’s Day
Veteran’s Day was originally known as Armistice Day, because the eleventh hour of that day—the eleventh of the eleventh month—marked the end of World War I hostilities in 1918. It was renamed in 1954 to commemorate veterans.
Currently there are about 25 million living veterans.
About 48 million Americans have served in the military since 1776.
“Veteran” comes from the Latin vetus, meaning “old.”
Veterans may include anyone who has served in the army, excepting those with dishonorable discharge but including those who may not have seen combat.
(LDS Living e-mail 11/11/08)

Here is a wonderful slideshow of some amazing photos of our country and men and women who served our country set to the song "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood. We watched this video in one of the assemblies today and this video honestly caused me to get emotional - it is beautiful!