He used to be my baby!!!

As today is Veterans Day here in the United States, I wanted to ‘republish’ this entry I did back in October about my nephew, Calvin Sanders, the first member of our family to serve in the armed services and who is on active duty right now in Afghanistan, as a member of the British Army.  I am extremely proud of him and all he is doing to keep us ALL safe, wherever we might reside on God’s green earth. 

The HE I refer to is my nephew, Calvin Paul Sanders.  He was born in 1987, I was born in 1980, we’re only 7 years apart in age, our age difference is less than that of my two oldest brothers and myself, which is 11 and 13 years.

Calvin and I were youngsters, sitting at the kids table, I was too young for the adults table, and Calvin was too old for the real little kids table, him and I just worked out, neither of us fit into an exact group.  We ganged up on Casey (his brother, my nephew), we played hockey together, I shaved his head for Interprovincials in 1996, yup got into trouble for that one.

But then in 1999 I left South Africa, Calvin was 12, I was 19.  With the distance between us, naturally, he grew up, moved to the UK and I ‘grew up’ here in MN on my own.  Our lives drifted apart and we are not as close because of it.  However, I am dedicating this blog post to him because I am so extremely proud of  him.
After visiting me, along with Casey and my parents, in 2009, he returned to the UK and enlisted in the Army.  He went off to ‘boot camp’ and he ‘grew up’, he became the first member of our family to serve in the Army (and no Dean and Martin I do not include your mandatory time in SA’s Army as serving, LOL!)
Calvin has excelled in the British Army, below is a picture of him with his award for being the top recruit:

As I write this post Calvin is preparing for his first deployment.  Come October 15th he will be leaving for Afghanistan.  In a family that has had no active military members this is a shock and hard for all of us.  But Calvin has accepted his responsibility and proven himself to be an extremely capable and always performs to the best of his ability.
I pray for his continued safety and I want him to know how extremely proud of him I am.  Even though the worlds we live in are far apart and extremely different, I love this boy (he’ll always be a boy to me) with all of my heart and my heart bursts with pride for all he has done, accomplished and will continue to accomplish.

You’ve made everyone in our family proud Calvin!!  I love you and cannot fully express my pride and appreciation I have for you and your contribution to make this world a safer place!!

See more pictures of Calvin below: