Hope and Nausea

I can't wait until tomorrow. And I can't wait until tomorrow is over. Words cannot describe how emotionally invested I am in this election. As a military wife, and as the mother of a severely ill child, there is so much riding on the outcome of tomorrows election for me. Will be husband spend the rest of his career in and out of Iraq, until eventually he either retires or is killed in action? Will my son have access to life saving therapies, or will some new administrations armchair scientist with a hardline theological bent decree that my childs life isn't as important as that of a few cells in a tube? Will my stepdaughter (and myself, frankly!) have the comfort of knowing that if (heaven forbid) we were ever sexually assaulted; that we would be able to access emergency contraception without interference from the person behind the pharmacy counter? 

For many, many voters this year, these are abstract concepts that they hear debated on Fox or NPR and then forget about. But for me, this election is, for my family, quite literally a matter of life and death.

 I take it VERY personally when someone who claims they care for us votes to continue this futile war, which has already robbed my family of one member. Or votes against the research that could make Little Poms life longer, easier and healthier. Or who laughs along with McCain at the idea of "the health of the mother." I'M that mother. And LP is my son. And my husband is the one putting on that uniform every day. 

I HATE this! I am so hopefully that tomorrow everything will, for the first time in most of my adult life, start to be okay again. I am so optimistic that there might truly be a light at the end of the Bush-era tunnel. 

But I'm petrified that it might not.

I will spend my election night home alone, because my husband will be on deployment...again. I am filled with hope and nausea. And I just want to know that everythings going to be okay.

So tomorrow, before you vote, think of me. And my child. And my husband. 

And vote for change.

And vote for hope.