Happy Birthday, Philip!

Today is your birthday. I am thinking of cakes. What is your favorite? Black Forest? Tiramisu? Vanilla? My favorite is Lemon. I love anything lemon. Lemon bars, lemon pie, lemon bundt with sweet glaze. I think I unknowingly had the same lessons from my mother as you did with yours...when life gives you lemons, make.....

I imagine the mideast has lemon trees, bulging in the hot sun. Wheat fields?, not likely. Sweets?, recognizable in any form?

Thank-you Sgt. Philip Jarvis for filling our hearts and our heads with real details. It is hard to transform the sweet sixteen year-old I met on Vermont soil to the Master Gunner that speaks to us through this log. I pray daily that you are infused with God's all knowingness and carried in his palm as you attend your duties.

Our daily candle in the window is the only tangible source to help us all express what words we can't seem to employ. Our now 14 & 12 y.o. 'tweens have a much different world view; knowing you are actively swatting fleas and carrying out work that goes beyond a desk.

It is a deep,deep honor to get to know you, more, through this log, this journal, that helps us all to know more. My comment to others often is, that it's such an extremely different war than the time your father and I grew through Vietnam. What a different world we will have because of this tool, and your taking the time to write.

Thanks. Thank-you. You are loved by many. Happy Birthday Philip!!

Love,

Amy J.