This morning I took my kids out for breakfast, and my youngest daughter brought along her daddy doll.

She likes to bring it along on our adventures as a family.

She will pretend to feed it, talk to it, and act like he is with us until we are reunited as a family again.

This morning strangers came up to our table after seeing the doll and thanked us for our service as a family, and some told us about the days when they served in the military. A few times strangers have cried after seeing the daddy doll, and once someone told my son to take care of his family until his daddy comes home.

Men and women leave their families for weeks, months, or a year and many people will never know what that is like. When we got the daddy doll, I thought it would be a good way to connect our little ones to their father, but in a way it has connected us to strangers too.