OH NO!!!

Hey big guy,

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Mom says you came home from soccer practice feeling yucky and now you have a fever.  That STINKS.  I wish I was there to help you feel better.  I could dress up like this action figure and bring you medicine!

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Maybe even by the time you read this you will be feeling well.  I sure hope so!

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Love you more than nurses love their patients,

Dad

Important here ... and everywhere

Dear Monkey,
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When you work in an Embassy, you sometimes get to know secrets that no one else can know.  So before you work here, they want to know for sure that they can trust you.  They look to see how honest you are.  So they ask all your friends and some of your neighbors whether you are an honest person.
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If they say that you are, then the Embassy knows that they can trust you, but if people tell them that you are not honest, you can't work for an Embassy.
.

Sometimes being honest is hard.  It might mean that you have to say something you don't want to say.  It might even turn out that you have to admit that you did something dumb or mean.  But being honest about those things is important, because then people know that they can trust you, even if you might make a mistake sometimes.

.

And if you feel bad about having to be honest, that bad feeling goes away, because you know you did the right thing in telling the truth.  But when you feel bad about NOT being honest, that bad feeling stays with you for a long time because you know you've hurt the person you lied to.

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Love you like the truth,

Dad

Diversity in Iraq

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Hi Big Guy,
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I wanted to tell you about how in Iraq there is diversity in the people who live here, just like in the United States.
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Here, some people are Arabs, and some people are Kurds.  And there are two major religious here too.  There are Shi'a Muslims and Sunni Muslims.
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Iraq has a long history of all three groups getting along to make their country great.  They remember the things that they share and have in common and remember that they love their country and they can work and play together.  They remember that their differences are part of what makes their country great.  Just like in the U.S.A.!
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But when people want to make trouble here, they try to point out the differences and make people angry about things that happened a long time ago.  That's silly, and just makes things worse for everyone.

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We should all try to remember how important diversity is to a great country.

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Love you like apple pie,

Dad

Not too much to say

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Hi Buddy,
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Just thinking about you and wanted to make sure you knew that I was.  I think that I will move the furniture around in my room soon.  I got a new bed and it's more comfortable and a little bigger than my other one.  I also think I'll move the TV into the living room so David and I can have people over to watch movies or sports.

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I hope we'll get to see the World Cup here.  If we don't I'll be really angry.  Grrrr.

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Love you like a crisp Fall morning (which we haven't had here yet),

Dad

One of the reasons we are here

Hi Patch,
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One of the reasons it was important for Americans to come to Iraq was to make sure that everyone got to use their right to vote.  Before we came, there was only one person to vote for, and almost everyone thought that he was pretty mean.
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Now there are lots of people to vote for, so Iraqis can choose someone who will work in the government to help them.  That right is very important to them and the first time that they got to vote for anyone they wanted they were very happy.

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There will be another election soon and we will help to make sure that things go okay and no one cheats.
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They use ink to show when someone has already voted and you can see in the picture that the man is so happy that he is kissing the ink!

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I wonder if his lips turned purple!!!

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Love you like a representative democracy,

Dad

Mail Call!!!

Hi buddy,
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My big boxes from home finally came and even with all the stuff that was in them that I needed, the most important three things were:
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1.  The picture of you playing soccer that Gram framed for me.
2.  The picture of you in the sweater that Mom-Mom made for you.
3.  The sign that you made for me in the multi-colored frame.
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Do you remember what the sign says?  It says: 

I love you, Dad.  You are the best Dad in the whole wide world.  Love, Patch Derks.

And it has a picture of you and me holding hands in the sunshine.  It makes me happy every time I see it.

Love you like the hot sun,
Dad.

Kickers are Champions!

Hi Buddy,

 .

I saw on the news that the Kickers won their division in soccer.  They are champions!  Isn't that great?

 .

I was so glad to take you to the Kickers game before I left, because I remember that one of the first things you and I ever did together, just you and me, was to go to a Kickers game.  You were a tiny little baby, just two weeks old or so. 

 .

I think you liked it, but you didn't even know how to smile yet!

 .

Love you like a Jamie Moreno goal,
Dad