COLUMNIST GAIL MAGGI: Daughter in a bucket!

Why, oh why, does the world have to be like this? These are the nutsy times, the years that seem to be turned up-side-down and crazy. Just when everything seemed to be going smoothly, Hubby and I got a phone call from our daughter stationed in Germany, ?Hi Ma, I just wanted to call you…?

?Gabrielle, it is 6 a.m., you know,? I said, fumbling with the phone in the dark and looking at the light-up numbers on the clock. ?Yeah, I know…it?s almost noon here,? she answered, but I knew something was bothering her.

?I found out I?m in bucket number 2,? she continued… ?and I?m on lockdown.? ?What does that mean? Did you do something wrong?? I asked, my heart starting to thump. ?No…it means I?ll be going soon. My bucket is usually scheduled to ship out at the end of February or in March, but we?re on lockdown now, so that means they can ship us out at any given moment,? she explained.

I could tell she was quite agitated and nervous about her situation. I can?t blame her, I would be frozen in time, too, just at the thought of going to the Middle East. These are times that are positively frightening for any one of our young adults who are in the service.

PEOPLE THINK that because it?s a girl in the service that they won?t send her anywhere that?s too dangerous…wrong. They send the girls everywhere they send the guys nowadays. With guns in hand, they do their duty right next to the guys doing their duty. These young adults in the military are the ones on the brink of destruction, and they are the Free World?s only hope of keeping that freedom.

Please remember them in any way you can. Your prayers would be nice if you?re so inclined, or pleasant thoughts for them all, and pride that they have the courage needed to do whatever their country asks of them. In the meantime, it?s a waiting game to see what will unfold on the national and international level of events.

One day it?s Saddam in the news, the next it?s a space shuttle disaster. Threats of terrorism still linger each day in the news, and now our daughter is in a ?bucket.? What?s next? I don’t know if I really want to know, but I?m a mother first and foremost…that happens to the best of us the moment one gives birth or takes charge of a child, and does not end with the child?s high school, college graduation, or marriage, or any time soon, I suspect. Hubby and I made a beeline to buy Gabe what we know she loves a lot…Jelly Belly Beans! Does that make any sense? Of course not!

IT ONLY means two frantic parents are worried about their ?Li

ttle Tweakums,? and the reason we bought her a new bowling ball at moment?s notice at her request a few weeks ago. By the way, she bowled a 638 series her first three games. This week we sent her two boxes of Jelly Belly Beans just to follow the tiny little kissing Teddy Bears sent a few days ago for Valentine?s Day, and hopefully a moment?s enjoyment before…they send her off to who knows where. When your baby is so far away, it?s nice to talk on the phone, but you can?t grab them up into your arms and comfort them, so you just kind of do stupid irrational things you think might please them in some small way.

Until then, I keep hoping there will be a leak in the number 2 bucket and she won?t have to go.