Word: matt
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...volunteers drawn in by the Maupins' trials, the Yellow Ribbon Support Center, a nonprofit group Matt's parents started last August, is headquarters. It's housed in a couple of donated storefronts tucked into the back of a shopping center. The center has shipped about 2,000 boxes--an estimated 20 tons--of donated candy and cookies, coffee and hot chocolate, games, toothbrushes, underwear and toiletries, to U.S. troops, largely in Iraq. Each box also contains a plastic bag with 10 small pin-on badges containing a photo of Maupin and a slip of paper: "These are pictures...
...center's walls are filled with posters and T shirts bearing Maupin's picture. While some parents might not want their lost child staring at them during most of their waking hours, Keith says it soothes him. "Matt is close when I'm here," he says, "because he's everywhere." Keith, who gave up his construction job in July, relies on relatives for his minimal needs. Working full time at the center has given him a mission. It is tough being the father of the nation's only missing soldier, he says. "You don't know what the military...
Keith chokes up when asked how he copes with the unrelenting state of not knowing. "Until Matt walks off the plane--or they carry him off--we will believe and have faith that Matt is alive," he says. Some days are tougher than others. "I'm almost certain that it's a test from God and that God is not going give you more than you can bear," he says. "But it's getting pretty heavy." He takes solace in the simple things. "Each time when it seems to be getting unbearable, something happens to lift the weight...
...pray every day before I leave here," Carolyn says in her living room. "I go to Matt's picture, and I put my hand up to him, and I always ask God for the courage and strength to get through the day." She too has her tougher days, and sometimes that tactile prayer isn't adequate. "So sometimes I lay on the bed and cry for a little bit before I go to work," she says. Whenever she falters, she hears Matt's voice. "I have to keep on going because Matt would say, 'Mom, what are you doing...
...parents are planning to head to that party welcoming the 724th home later this month. "They are Matt's family too," Carolyn says. Keith wants to make sure the returning soldiers don't feel guilty that they have come home without retrieving his son. "That's not their job," he says. The service has told the Maupins that convoy protection has been beefed up in the wake of the attack on their son's convoy. "It's a shame it had to happen this way, but I'm glad the changes have been made," Carolyn says. "But what about Matt...