New York Times Article

I have not written for a while here. Life has been busy, I have had Alanna more than usual as Megan has not been feeling well. She has days where she is ok, days where she feels great, and days where she can't get out of bed or stop throwing up.

Alanna has had her days too. There is no way that this is not affecting her in some way, seeing her mother so sick. Thankfully she has a great daycare center to go to a few days a week, and she spends time with people who give her tons of love. So far we have been able to keep things as even keel as possible.

She is still too sick to work as there is no rhyme or reason to her getting ill. She still has some money to live on for another month or so, and we might have to figure out how to regenerate some more help financially. So many people have been so kind...and I am so appreciative. You have no idea how much all the support has meant to our family. My friend Karen called me today and wanted to know what she could do, and I told her that just making that phone call to me meant everything in the world. It has been a really rough winter for all of us, and the kindness of others has been what has kept a smile on my face when I thought that impossible.

I read the New York Times article today from the sunday magazine on Women in the War. I think everyone should read it..you can go to nytimes. com and at the bottom go to Magazine and the link to the article "The Women's War". I could not finish it as I was so upset and knew too much already--first hand from Megan about the sexual harassment and abuse.....Megan said she never went anywhere without a knife out of fear of ANY man..not just the "enemy". She did file harassment charges a few times against one of her commanding officers, and they were "demoted" as a result, but it sounds like she was lucky, as this is not often the norm. The article touched the tip of the iceberg and did not cover other abuses of women, pregnancy in the miliatry, and the diseases that women come home with.

I cannot write more about it as I will get too angry and need to keep a positive focus for all concerned.