I'll Be Home for Christmas

Redfield military family spends Christmas together for first time in two years

Published: December 25, 2014

Aprille Hanson

Aprille Hanson

U.S. Army Reservist Gary Maroun (left) will be spending Christmas with wife Sondra and daughter Christina for the first time in two years. Maroun re-turned in February from a tour in Afghanistan.

Aprille Hanson

U.S. Army Reservist Gary Maroun (left) will be spending Christmas with wife Sondra and daughter Christina for the first time in two years. Maroun re-turned in February from a tour in Afghanistan.

The backdrop for Gary Maroun’s 2013 Christmas celebration was Kabul, Afghanistan, surrounded by his fellow soldiers, walls lined with barbed wire at the top and sniper screens to protect the base. While he enjoyed the Christmas music, the care packages and the nice meal the military provided, he missed his family.

“More than anything, what I remember is a few hours of peace and rest and reflecting on our family and maybe the thought this would be the last time we would be spending Christmas apart,” Gary Maroun said.

His thoughts, his wish, his prayer was answered. Gary and his wife of seven years, Sondra, and their daughter Christina, 18, whom he legally adopted, will spend Christmas together for the first time in two years as a family in their new home in Redfield, moving recently from Texarkana, Texas. The couple, who have both been married before, also has three other adult children.

“We’re moving into a little bigger place, so we’re going to get a real tree. I spent so much time with an empty house she (Christina) would be at school and him being gone, so just having a full house, everyone there,” will be special, Sondra said.

“I think you can just sum up our family in one word and that’s love." — Sondra Maroun

Throughout the years, the couple has had a harder road than most, and none tougher than 2013.

The couple first met at a church singles group — she is Baptist, he is Catholic. Christina Maroun is nondenominational. Sondra said typically, they’ll switch off going to the Catholic and Baptist churches, explaining the key in balancing a marriage with different religious beliefs is respect.

“The first thing that I did was bought a book that would kind of guide me through Catholicism because I think respect for each other’s religion is very important. I would just kind of set boundaries. If we had a difference of belief on something we didn’t discuss it.”

However, Sondra admits, having been to the Episcopalian church as a child, she misses the structure.

“Sometimes religions take a turn and just change,” Sondra Maroun said. “I kind of like the structure more. At some point if we visit a Catholic church more and it’s something I’m comfortable with, maybe it’s something to lean towards more. It seems to be the new thing in America to go with how you feel,” creating a more “emotional” church environment, rather than traditional, she said.

Gary had already spent years learning the true value of respect and commitment in the military. He joined the U.S. Army in 1985, using his degree in chemical engineering to train fellow soldiers in chemical, biological and nuclear defense.

He later served overseas in Germany, leaving active duty in 1989.

In 1992, Maroun, who is seeking a new parish since the family’s recent move, joined the U.S. Army Reserves and was not called overseas until 2009 for a tour in Kuwait, only two years after the couple married. In the reserves, his assignments varied in training and emergency response.

“Sometimes when you see some of the actions that were taken in the name of religion it tests your ability to forgive or to be more open to those other viewpoints in maintaining faith not to react in the same way,” Maroun said.

Out of the seven years, four years have been spent away from his wife and family. They said communication and guidance from God can be the best tools for military families.

“I think going to Mass is important as a community, you have that extra support,” Gary said.

Christina said she found ways to honor him when he wasn’t there.

“I was a cheerleader at my high school so at my senior night, I actually had my mom on one side and an American flag on the other, for him while everyone else had their dad and mom, I had an American flag,” she said.

But even with all the communication and faith, 2013 proved to be a tougher challenge. While Gary was overseas, Sondra complained of dizziness, hallucinations and memory loss. A friend saved her life, suggesting she be tested for an aneurysm. The hunch became a reality in August, when doctors discovered an 11-millimeter aneurysm at the top of her neck, at the base of her brain. If it hadn’t been caught, there was a chance blood clots would release into her brain, causing a severe stroke or death.

“He said, ‘I’m sorry but you have an aneurysm.’ I said, ‘OK, is it in my head or my neck?’ He said, ‘It’s in your neck.’ I said, ‘They won’t have to cut my head open?’ He said, ‘No,’ and I said, ‘Well praise the Lord,’” Sondra said.

At the time she got the news, her daughter Christina was in the hospital with a concussion and whip lash after an accident involving an 18-wheeler. The home front was falling apart and Gary was in the Middle East. Instead of coming home for Christmas, he took his leave in September to be there for Sondra during her surgery.

So despite being in that little base in Afghanistan and Sondra back home struggling to recover, Maroun and his family were thankful to God for life.

“We were thankful for his safety, for her safety from the wreck and my safety from the aneurysm,” Sondra said. “I think we just really appreciate everything more.”

And those blessings of life, family and health will make this year’s Christmas even more special.

“I think you can just sum up our family in one word and that’s love. We love each other a lot and we support each other in everything and if one of us is going through something. We just love each other through it,” Sondra said.

Gary added, “It’s all about love, togetherness and laughter.”