cody, she and your are in my prays! its got to be tough on you and really tough on her. give me her name, address, div, ship and if she has interests send me them. like music she likes or tv shows or anything. id be honored and proud to write her!

I wrote Siera. I will be praying for y'all

cool, I like country that will make it easy for me.

im proud to do it!!

Cody, Having other people write her is a good idea. With your permission, I will ask a couple of the ladies at the church where I am the Worship Pastor to write your wife (without telling them the details about your mother-in-law so that it doesn't get mentioned). Having made my request, I have to tell you that I suspect that the "lots and lots of letters" that she desires are letters from you. So . . . you may be doing this already but my advice is for you to write and send her a letter every day. Include in your letters things that the little one does how the child is developing (no matter how insignificant it might seem to you). This will help her feel connected to you and your baby. Maybe I'm sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong and if so just ignore my advice.

Now for the disclaimer: This advice comes from an old married guy, who understands women (a little bit), understands how relationships are supposed to work and struggles along to do it right himself. 

I am also praying for y'all.

no prob. my wife is going to write her to and we will never bring up her mom. only up lifting stuff will come from us. god bless her and her family!

Cody, sorry to hear about some of the trials your family is experiencing right now. You and Siera are in my families prayers. I'll ask my wife to write to her and offer some encouragement. 

Stay strong brother. I understand the mother-in-law situation. And Gary is right, the trivial things (trivial to us) matter in letters. In a situation like this, think like a woman when you write. We men are very compartmentalized, we see things like a blue-print. Everything has it's place and we handle things one room at a time. Women, holy cow. They see things like a ball of yarn. Everything connects into one, long, rambling string. Not that that's wrong, it's just different. Example: A man goes to the grocery store and buys a gallon of milk. You ask him how his trip was, "It was fine. I bought the milk. I came home.". Done. A woman? How was your trip? "Oh it was wonderful! I went to the store but oh before I got to the store I was driving down that one road to the get to the store and I saw this dog who was just on the side of the road oh but before that I saw Jenny and she told me to tell you that Mark said Hi and then I got to the store and I was walking down the aisle toward the milk and oh did I tell you I also ran into Linda in the parking lot......." and on and on it goes. Now, I'm not bagging on the women in our lives AT ALL! It's just a difference between men and women, not wrong, just different. My wife and I mentor and counsel young couples at our church, so like Gary, I know a little about this. 

But back to the letters, think like a woman when you write them. Babble. String it out. Make details from multiple angles connect. Make a 1 paragraph story a 2 page story. She will LOVE the details and she will LOVE the effort you put into them. Also, that will help you write more letters.

Brother, I know that right now you are confused, un-informed, worried, stressed out, lonely, maybe a little angry, and just all around, sad. But you are not alone my man. You got each of us with you right now. 

My daughter's journey into the Navy was a very difficult one. We had so many plans for her and had only her best interest at heart. However, those plans that WE had, were constantly falling apart. It was one step forward, three steps back. We didn't know what to do, so we cried out to God. Boy did He listen. I don't know what took us so long to look into the Navy (pretty much my entire family is prior service myself and my wife included), but we finally did. And all of a sudden, things smoothed out. We realized that had we put our situation in His hands earlier, the journey would have been completely different. God has a plan for Siera man, and trust me, it is a plan for GOOD. I don't know your spiritual life Cody, but regardless, know that God IS on your side brother and you and your family IS being watched over. 

Please, let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. 

Oh and one other thing, get online and check out navyformoms.com. That may be a resource that your mother in law could use to direct some of the anxiety she is feeling and will give her a forum to vent. In addition, you could also reach out to the admin's on that site who I would assume, would be happy to help to see if they could get some women to write to Siera also. 

And mom in law? I'd imagine there may be past tensions there between you two, but right now, she's just as scared and un-informed as you are. She doesn't know who else TO lash out at. And without going into details, I TOTALLY understand what you are going thru with her. Stay strong man. You got this.

Cody, So glad you are doing that! That is great! I will send the address out to some of our church members. Hopefully we can help encourage her. I hope that you are in a good church there in Tennessee. It it is good to have people around who can lend a hand or an ear.

Jason, You have a good bit of wisdom there my friend. I was just listening to an interview on the radio the other day of the authors of a book called "Men are Like Waffles, Women are Like Spaghetti" originally released in 2007 by Bill and Pam Farrel that speaks along the same lines that you did in your post. 

Good to hear Cody. Glad you two got to talk. I'm sure getting a few answers was good for you and I'm sure simply hearing your voice and getting your input put her at some ease.

Good to hear that the pain has subsided also. Unfortunately, stress fractures are typically something she'll have to live with. I know my daughter does. Fortunately, the Nave doesn't do a ton of running you did in the Army, so that would benefit her.

Don't be afraid to let her know that you think it's a good idea for her to stay. She needs your opinion right now. You already took care of the part where you let her know you got her back either way. But let her know your opinion, and then remind her it is HER choice, but you support her whatever she does. 

With you thinking she's staying, that's good. Sounds like you got yourself a strong woman there man. Way to make her feel better in the time you were given, good job.

Keep us posted and reach out if need be...

Division 375 in between training

god bless! they all look great!

Nice looking group. I am curious though. How are you getting these pictures?

magic connections!!!!!!!!!!

LOL..

seriously, the Navy posts some on the RTC's FB page...........

Keep the magic coming, hope you can get 397!

save for those posed for winners of the Tuesday Trivia contest, photos are generally done at random with no info about division number given....but I keep looking!!!!

Ah, Magic Connections, that explains a lot!

Good, Cody.  Hang in there and be upbeat yourself, too.  I remember our daughter didn't want to hear things she was missing, just more general information otherwise it became a reason to be homesick.  Stay away from the "you missed" type of stuff, just encourage.

my daughter had serious stress fractures that delayed her PIR 6 weeks....she served 5 years and is now a Navy veteran......keep the faith

Wow... I never knew before how much Julia sounds just like her mother on the phone. She just called after week 2 and she is doing great! She cannot stop thanking me for giving her all the pearls of wisdom before she went in Boot Camp- definitely keeping her in good graces with the powers that be. She is following my advice to keep a reverse countdown in her mind these first few weeks so it doesn't sound so bad (i.e.- instead of thinking she has 44 days to go, she counts the 12 days she's already completed). Just a suggestion...

Well, my SR arrived 9/3 and we got a real phone call on the 14th, which was a surprise. We didn't get a call this week, though a number of divisions in the same TG did get to call. There is no rule to it. It is at the discretion of the RDCs. It is hard, but just remember that if you don't get a call it means your recruit is fit and still on schedule.

900-number divisions are perfoming divisions...flags, band, choir, drill, etc.

800-number divisions are SEAL and SWCC divisions

is there rules on what I can send in letters? like can I send a letter with picture printed  at top of letter head? IMG_20130923_082159_067.jpg like this?