{"id":10686,"date":"2011-12-20T00:45:09","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T05:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=10686"},"modified":"2011-12-20T00:52:40","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T05:52:40","slug":"good-newstexans-surprise-marine%e2%80%99s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine%e2%80%99s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html","title":{"rendered":"Good News:Texans surprise Marine\u2019s widow and son with a new house"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"vertical-align: middle\" src=\"https:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/p\/sp\/editorial_image\/35\/35475eeecef31ce2093221a71b70dd62\/texans_surprise_marines_widow_and_son_with_a_new_house.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"330\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Marine Scott Wood died four weeks ago after suffering injuries during combat in Iraq. Before his burial, his wife dressed him in two uniforms. On the outside, Scott wore his military dress blues. Underneath, he wore the blue No. 80 jersey of <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/teams\/hou\/\">Houston Texans<\/a> wide receiver <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/players\/6339\/\">Andre Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sara Wood had been married to Scott for eight years. They have a 5-year-old son together named Landon. Now he and Sara live in a single room in her parent&#8217;s house.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He knows daddy&#8217;s in heaven,&#8221; Sara said of Landon, &#8220;though I don&#8217;t know if he fully comprehends what that means. He knows daddy&#8217;s not coming back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When Sara got an offer to go watch the Houston Texans play the <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/teams\/car\/\">Carolina Panthers<\/a> on Sunday, she jumped at the opportunity. She knew her husband would have loved to have gone to Reliant Stadium to watch his beloved team play. Plus, she and Landon had never been to a game before.<\/p>\n<p>As described in a column by Tully Corcoran on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxsportshouston.com\/12\/18\/11\/Joyful-day-for-soldiers-widow-at-Texans-\/landing_texans.html?blockID=629146&amp;feedID=3551\">FSHouston.com<\/a>, the team brought Sara to the game under the pretense that she and her son would be part of a halftime ceremony in which Landon would receive a bike and Scott&#8217;s memory would be celebrated by the 71,500 in attendance. Both those things happened, but a much bigger surprise awaited.<\/p>\n<p>The team told Sara she and Landon would be receiving a custom-built, mortgage-free house in a Houston suburb. It&#8217;s courtesy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.babasupport.org\/\">Operation Finally Home<\/a>, an organization that builds houses for wounded and disabled veterans or their widowed families. In its seven years of existence, the charity has built 32 homes in 32 states, all mortgage free.<\/p>\n<p>This home will allow the Wood family to stay close to family but have a place of their own. The hope is that she and Landon will move in next May. Scott won&#8217;t be there, but that doesn&#8217;t mean Landon won&#8217;t talk to him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We told him he could talk to daddy in his prayers,&#8221; she said, &#8220;and even in the middle of the day, you&#8217;ll see him walk around the corner and you&#8217;ll hear him say the &#8216;now I lay me down to sleep prayer,&#8217; which Scott taught him. And then he starts talking to daddy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read More: http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/blog\/shutdown_corner\/post\/Texans-surprise-Marine-8217-s-widow-and-son-wit?urn=nfl-wp14211<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Marine Scott Wood died four weeks ago after suffering injuries during combat in Iraq. Before his burial, his wife dressed him in two uniforms. On the outside, Scott wore his military dress blues. Underneath, he wore the blue No. 80 jersey of Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson. Sara Wood had been married to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":403,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3837,3366,924,1430,5,1589],"tags":[3838,3840,3841,3839],"class_list":["post-10686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-good-deeds","category-good-news","category-heroes","category-news-2","category-u-s-marines","category-warm-and-fuzzy-stories","tag-iraq-war-widow","tag-mortgage-free","tag-operation-finally-home","tag-texans-give-marine-war-widow-house"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Good News:Texans surprise Marine\u2019s widow and son with a new house - Watchwoman on the Wall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine\u2019s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good News:Texans surprise Marine\u2019s widow and son with a new house - Watchwoman on the Wall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Marine Scott Wood died four weeks ago after suffering injuries during combat in Iraq. Before his burial, his wife dressed him in two uniforms. On the outside, Scott wore his military dress blues. Underneath, he wore the blue No. 80 jersey of Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson. Sara Wood had been married to&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine\u2019s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Watchwoman on the Wall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-20T05:45:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-20T05:52:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/p\/sp\/editorial_image\/35\/35475eeecef31ce2093221a71b70dd62\/texans_surprise_marines_widow_and_son_with_a_new_house.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Donna Calvin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Good News:Texans surprise Marine\u2019s widow and son with a new house - Watchwoman on the Wall","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine\u2019s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Good News:Texans surprise Marine\u2019s widow and son with a new house - Watchwoman on the Wall","og_description":"&nbsp; Marine Scott Wood died four weeks ago after suffering injuries during combat in Iraq. Before his burial, his wife dressed him in two uniforms. On the outside, Scott wore his military dress blues. Underneath, he wore the blue No. 80 jersey of Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson. Sara Wood had been married to&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine\u2019s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html","og_site_name":"Watchwoman on the Wall","article_published_time":"2011-12-20T05:45:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-12-20T05:52:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/p\/sp\/editorial_image\/35\/35475eeecef31ce2093221a71b70dd62\/texans_surprise_marines_widow_and_son_with_a_new_house.jpg"}],"author":"Donna Calvin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine%e2%80%99s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine%e2%80%99s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html","name":"Good News:Texans surprise Marine\u2019s widow and son with a new house - Watchwoman on the Wall","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine%e2%80%99s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine%e2%80%99s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/p\/sp\/editorial_image\/35\/35475eeecef31ce2093221a71b70dd62\/texans_surprise_marines_widow_and_son_with_a_new_house.jpg","datePublished":"2011-12-20T05:45:09+00:00","dateModified":"2011-12-20T05:52:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#\/schema\/person\/1470e1ef6765f8a27f970307b0835df1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine%e2%80%99s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine%e2%80%99s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine%e2%80%99s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/p\/sp\/editorial_image\/35\/35475eeecef31ce2093221a71b70dd62\/texans_surprise_marines_widow_and_son_with_a_new_house.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/p\/sp\/editorial_image\/35\/35475eeecef31ce2093221a71b70dd62\/texans_surprise_marines_widow_and_son_with_a_new_house.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/12\/good-newstexans-surprise-marine%e2%80%99s-widow-and-son-with-a-new-house.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Good News:Texans surprise Marine\u2019s widow and son with a new house"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/","name":"Watchwoman on the Wall","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Donna Calvin","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#\/schema\/person\/1470e1ef6765f8a27f970307b0835df1","name":"Donna Calvin","description":"In sixth grade my teacher told us that we were going to be the first generation to see the year 2000 and all things would be different. He continued that God wasn't important, wasn't real, and our parents just used God to impose restrictions on us because they were inadequate to parent effectively. I knew then I was going to be involved in a war and that I would have to be in Jesus Christ's Army. Even then, I knew the United States of America would cease to exist without the vast majority of its citizens voluntarily submitting to the Perfect and Good Laws of the Holy Bible. I am a woman who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. I am tired of seeing our LORD denigrated from the school house to the White House. I search the Internet for items that ought to serve as a warning to Americans and Christians all through America, but the nation seems to be sleeping. Wake up America! You are losing your freedoms, your children and your country. 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