So my mom is currently deployed in Afghanistan...

[Cainad (dec.)]

...and I thought I'd share a brief version of one of the stories she relayed to us from there:

Quick background: My mom is a medical doctor in the US Army

She was invited to spend a day at a girl's orphanage by the director/doctor of the orphanage, since it is much easier for a female doctor to give a proper examination and treatment to girls and young women in their culture. She went wearing a white headscarf and without a weapon, since firearms frighten the children.

She realized that in addition to the gender issue, the real reason the director of the orphanage wanted my mom there was to show "his girls" what a woman can grow up to be in this day and age. It's a great concern, especially for the older girls, whether or not higher education made one unfit for marriage and motherhood; my mom was there to show them it didn't as much as she was there to treat them. She showed them that she had two sons who were both "this tall," and they laughed; "taller even than you, Doctoress?"

As she left, she was told that at least three of the girls were eagerly talking about becoming "doctoresses" or nurses.


I really, really enjoy being related to the people in my family.

[Suu]

Thats a great story!

[Cainad (dec.)]

And that's the abridged version. Also, there's at least one other she's told us about, in which she single-handedly improved relations between her medical facility and a nearby NATO hospital that they had not been sending patients to because of a language barrier (the NATO place is mainly run by the French) and "They're the French *eyes roll*". So she used her own French language skills, and the assistance of her sister who speaks French like a native, to make it possible for a soldier with a serious cardiac condition to get treated faster than if they had waited for the skies to clear so they could helicopter him to an Anglophonic hospital. This, obviously, opens the door for future co-operation, which had not been happening up until then.

[Nast]

Your family sounds awesome.

[Suu]

Fucking french!!

[Cainad (dec.)]

Fucking french!!

[Cainad (dec.)]

Your family sounds awesome.

It should be noted that I am, in fact, related to several superheroes.

Mom has been a super-doctor for the last 20 years; dad has worked as a chocolatier, an X-Ray tech, a stay-at-home-dad, and analyzing the water near a paper factory in Maine as part of making sure they weren't polluting the shit out of it. He also does most, if not all, of the carpentry, electrical, and plumbing work in any house we live in. One of my uncles is bagpipe-playing kung-fu grandmaster with a PhD in Paleontology, and is world-renowned for his work in the study of lizards.

It's kind of bizarre, when I pause to think about it.

[Iason Ouabache]

Your mom sounds awesome Cainad. You come from good stock.

[Freeky]

Oh my god, your family is awesome.

IMA HAFF TO STEEL IT FROM YERZ! 

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

Congratulations on having an awesome family, my condolences to them for having to deal with the French.

[Iason Ouabache]

Oh my god, your family is awesome.

IMA HAFF TO STEEL IT FROM YERZ! 

OH FUCK! LOOK OUT CAINAD!!!!  FREEKY IS GONNA RAEP YOU!!1!!!!!

:

[Freeky]

Oh my god, your family is awesome.

IMA HAFF TO STEEL IT FROM YERZ! 

OH FUCK! LOOK OUT CAINAD!!!!  FREEKY IS GONNA RAEP YOU!!1!!!!!

:

AHAHAHAH!

[Dysnomia]

Cainad, I have a dad who works for Sun Microsystems(lol Oracle lol), who's constantly afraid of being laid off (because of obvious job instability), a Mrs. Cleaver-esque mom who's busy putting small children's personalities into boxes (preschool teacher), an shopaholic aunt, a liberal, but somehow still offensively conservative grandma, and an aunt/uncle who are supermega conservatards who spend their time failing at raising their children to succeed, which is why my cousin was homeless for a year in their backyard, and my other cousin still lives at home and is major emo. 


CAN WE TRADE FAMILIES?

[Payne]

Cainad's momma accidentally the whole Taliban.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Cainad's momma accidentally the whole Taliban.

THE WHOLE THING!