I'll never be the same: My Ukrainian wife's first trip to the United States

Nolan Peterson writes about introducing his wife to America. The things that happed to them are touching. It's a very good read. I'm certain you'll like it if you choose to click over and read it. The article is uplifting.

Sample:

We’d been wine tasting all afternoon and had rounded off the day with a few cocktails to boot. Feeling a bit loosened up, my brother and I, as is our habit, slipped into a familiar topic of conversation—the war in Afghanistan. 

You see, both Drew and I are U.S. military veterans. And, naturally, we get to talking about our wartime experiences whenever we’re together. Often a bit too loudly, as Lilya and Gabrielle gently suggested on that night in Geyserville. 

In any case, as we wrapped up dinner and asked for the check, the waitress informed us that someone had already paid our bill. We asked who this person was, but he or she had already left, the waitress explained. 

“They asked me to tell you, ‘Thank you for your service,’” she said. 

My brother and I were speechless. It is, after all, all too easy to assume the country has moved on and forgotten about our wars when so many of the things that divide us seem to occupy so much of the news. 

On the walk back to the hotel that night, my wife, who is Ukrainian, told me, “I’m so shocked and impressed. I’ve never seen such a kind gesture by a stranger. It was magnificent.”

I was moved by the gesture, too. But it wasn’t the first time someone in America had bought me a drink for being a veteran. What I didn’t immediately understand is that from my wife’s point of view, it was a singularly unprecedented, characteristically American, display of gratitude.

Great photos. He shows her New York, they visit ground zero, looked at skyscrapers there and Chicago and the Washington D.C.monuments. Then off to Colorado AF Academy where his wife was invited to give a brief speech.

This is the greatest country in the world. But most Americans don’t know it.

They visited the Garden of the Gods, then off to Arizona, drove across the desert to the Grand Canyon. They visited Las Vegas, then California, Hollywood, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Red Wood Forests and wine country. Then they doubled back to Florida to tour Kennedy Space Center where they saw the Space Shuttle Atlantis and Saturn V moon rocket.

The Daily Signal