Day 71 Week 10

Golly - week 10. Thank goodness for him being safe so far and just pray that's the way it continues.

The weather is bitterly cold and it's just two weeks to Christmas Day and there's a rumour it could snow. C loves the snow, he always goes sledging and throws himself around with cheerful abandon and even ended up on the front page of the local paper one year, when for all the world our common looked like something out of the Alps.

My dear neighbour has just popped round and bless her, as she knew I was struggling with the whole time-of-year/Afghan thing, so she's lent me her light box to see if that will help to lift the spirits. Another friend rang me out of the blue and said 'what's up' as if she could sense exactly how I was feeling at that moment in time. Then my dear colleagues from work have sent cards and e-mails full of love and best wishes, and my line manager has left me a lovely message on my answerphone just checking how things are and hoping things are good. I cannot explain what it means when people are so kind and care so much.

I was talking to a close friend about the sense of not belonging that accompanies someone going off to a war zone, it's as if you live in a different world to everyone else. In the first and second world war people were united by a common sense of purpose. Everyone had someone away fighting or defending somewhere, and those at home were also under attack from the skies above so there was no separation of resolve. But this is different. I remember when my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and that was the same feeling - looking at people as an outsider and not feeling as if we inhabited the same planet.

See that the Prime Minister has visited the troops and stayed overnight in Sangin. He has said that there will be more and better resources made available but that there will be cuts in other areas to pay for them. He stressed that it was a vital campaign to wage and that if we withdrew there would be a direct threat to home security. Let's hope that's true.

Another parcel and letter to be despatched but apparently we're now being asked not to send stuff out to loved ones as logistics cannot deal with the vast amount being sent from home.

R out with boyfriend and the graduation ball was awesome. H visiting old friends in Brighton and then off skiing in France and staying in the chalet of a friend.

Lots of love and prayers for the safety of everyone.

Speak soon. A soldier's Mum x