Emily-Army Strong and we are Army Proud!

Emily Dawn Johnson, currently known in South Carolina's Fort Jackson Boot Camp as Private Johnson, shipped out for the Army on Thursday, September 20, 2007. Having struggled for the past 8 years to get her life together she was excited to join the armed forces and get a new start. I was able to spend about a week with her before she shipped out and it was an amazing time for our relationship. Emily's 3 year old son, Logan is currently staying with me and my family while Emily is away and we are so excited to have some quality time with this sweet boy. Logan will be featured frequently here so that Emily can see what her son has been up to as each week passes. Thank you for reading this blog. Your prayers and comments are treasured. I am so proud of her and look forward to updating everyone on how she is doing. She will be writing me as soon as she is allowed and I will update this blog as I hear from her.

Week 1 of Boot Camp

Boot Camp....Of course my first question, was ARE THEY GOING TO CUT YOUR HAIR! The answer is no. Girls get lucky in that sense, they do not have to cut their hair, but they do have to keep it off of their necks during boot camp. That was Emily's first question for her recruiter when she went into the Army office. It would have been a much harder recruit for Sergeant Rivera if the haircut had been required. The first 4-5 days of boot camp is all processing. From what was explained to Emily there would be a lot of standing in line and plenty of time to listen to the Ipod Michelle Mathis gave her before she left. For those of you who don't know Emily, she loves to sing and loves to dance. I picture her in line with her Ipod dancing like crazy and making lots of people laugh....I am sure this is very unrealistic....it is probably not quite that fun. Until I hear otherwise we can all think of that for now. :)
I was able to attend Emily's final swear in at the MEPS building in downtown Houston. It was very special to be a part of that. I have included a video of Emily swearing in. Logan did very well with his goodbyes....better than his Kiki (that's me). I was teary, but they were proud tears. I was so excited to see Emily make such an amazing decision for her life and I look forward to getting her first letter. Until then....