A mother's thoughts for her soldier sons

It’s Chanukah. But it doesn’t feel like it so much.

My one boy, the eldest, has finally finished his reserve service. now what? Now he is planning an overseas trip with his friend, a common plan for Israeli soldiers exiting their army service.

My second boy who has been in Gaza, then Lebanon, then Syria, then the Golan Heights, tells me he is coming home this afternoon. So, I have to ready his bed, get the laundry done so the machine is clear for his things, make food, and make sure there are things he likes.

I want to share greetings and blessings to everyone reading this, in the season where the miracles of Chanukah are available to us. Not just the miracle that oil burned for 8 days, when there was only enough oil for one day. But the miracle that the Jews kept on fighting, kept fighting tough-looking odds, kept their eyes on the prize to save what was holy. That’s a blessing I can offer you, and hope you’ll pass it on to someone else.

What does he like?

The last time he came home he complained that we didn’t have corn flakes. So I’d better get them.

But that was summer. Now it is December. Will he want corn flakes now?

He is always drinking milk out of the carton. So I will get more milk.

These children of ours grow up in so many ways ... but when they come home, they are just our children.

It’s impossible to describe preparing for your son to come home from the front, knowing he’s seen things we all spend our lives trying to protect him from. Knowing that after a few days of corn flakes, and red meat, and milk from the carton, he’ll be going back. Knowing that he’s lost people he’s known — army buddies, classmates, neighbors. We all want peace so that Israel can stand free, but a mother wants peace so her boy won’t need to return to the war again and again and again. Meanwhile, I am proud of my sons and all our soldiers.

Those of you who heard me speak on my recent U.S. tour heard how difficult and sometimes awkward it can be, to talk to my children.

I don’t want to bother them. I don’t want to upset them. I don’t want to say the wrong thing.

They are not the same boys who left home a year ago.

They have seen and experienced things that I have not, and probably could not withstand.

And that changes a person. They don’t talk about it. They just ask for cereal.

So I will do my part and get some!

Natalie Sopinsky is originally from Delaware. She now lives in Susya, Israel with her family. She is the spokesperson for Rescuers Without Borders.