My son left for Iraq today…

My son left for Iraq today after six months of training in Carolinas and in the desert. Lord, I miss him dearly. Although he has been a Marine for more than 11 years now and is married with two beautiful daughters, we talked every week. There has not been one week (excluding his desert training) that he has not called me to see about my well-being.

A few years ago, I dreamt I saw him climbing over a brick wall with his other comrades, and he was very dusty and tired from war. He had a large weapon in his hand, and I was in the midst of a storm with my daughter. I was trying to get her to leave a house; for a dangerous storm was soon approaching. As I ran out in the street trying to decide whether I would run to safety or go back in that doomed house with her to face the approaching storm, I turned and saw my son climbing over that brick wall. Lord he looked so dusty and tired. I ran to him and embraced him, telling him that it has been a long time since I saw him, and my heart soared with gladness at his sight.

I told my son about the above dream, for God has always shown me the future through dreams, and I knew it meant he would go to Iraq. Although that day came about two years later, I am sad. When he was in the desert training prior to leaving, I felt a profound emptiness; for it was the first time in my life that I did not hear my son’s voice in a few weeks. I thought to myself, “Is this what it is going to be like when he leaves?”

I know other sons and daughters have gone to the battle ground in Iraq, and many of them have not come back. But I am holding to the fact that I saw him coming towards me in my dream. I am believing that my son shall live and not die. The day he left he texted me and told me he was leaving now, and that he loved me. He then texted, “REMEMBER ME!”, and I felt I would break in that moment. How could I forget my son who has been, and is, so dear to me. I bore five daughters and one son, so he is the apple of my eye, and the link to the next generation of males in our family.

Why am I writing this? Well it is to get out these emotions I am feeling right now. Why does America have to be the “Policemen” of the world? Can America single-handedly stop terrorism—“NO”. What are the costs to the wives, children, and parents – and especially to the young lives of husbands, sons, and daughters who sacrificed their life for yet another cause. Perhaps I am just now speaking as a mother who dearly misses her son.

Please pray for my son (Elijah Colclough / nicknamed “Gucci”) too! My son shall live and not die in Jesus name!

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Patricia Daboh
Patricia Daboh
Patricia Daboh contributes articles to Nigerians In America and Nigerian Muse and can be reached through her email address here.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Keep faith, and be steadfast in your prayers. My brother did a one year “tour” in Iraq and came back healthy @ least physically. it was one of the most nerve wracking years for my family.

    Faith overcomes.

  2. Akinola:

    Thanks for your words and prayers. It always makes one feel good to know someone has, and is, praying along with you for the same cause. When I think about it, when Gucci was little, he always played “soldier” with his male cousins when we lived in the countryside in South Carolina. They jumped in the dry ditches in the summer months with their sticks pretending they were weapons and crawled through fields of tall corn stalks. He was always a solider in his mind, and he soon joined the service. God shall protect him, and I GREATLY appreciate your prayers!

  3. Patricia; I cannot tell you that I know what you are going through as a mother. I do not know. But because you seem to have put your faith and your trust in Jesus the Christ, I must remind you that He knows what you are going through even if no one else does. And because of the promise He has made to each and everyone of His followers, I am confident and faithful that He will NEVER leave you alone.

    Your son is dear to you as he should be. You love your son as only a mother can. And judging from your write-up, he loves you too. But do not doubt the mission to which he is committed. Your son is a soldier. He is a warrior. If he is not in this war, he will be in another war. He represents one of the best that any Nation on earth has to offer. Take pride in that as you put your faith of his safe return in Jesus the Christ.

    May God be with you in your hour of doubt. May Holy Spirit strenghten your soul in time of trouble. May God of Trinity bring your son back home to you safe and sound. In the Holy name of Christ I have prayed for you and your son. Amen!

    I don’t know your son: Gucci, but I will remember him in my prayer tonight. And may our prayers of petition for him and for you be acceptable in the sight of our heavenly Father. Amen!

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