About the Book

The book We Serve Too! was inspired by Kathleen's desire to provide a book for her grandchildren, when her son joined the army and later was deployed to Iraq. While passing a playground in town, seeing children climbing the nets, much as soldiers do in training, an idea sparked. It seemed a good place to start, to connect the common everyday experiences of children to the things their parent might be doing while deployed. Children love the familiar and find comfort in relating to the absent parent in this way.

Paula caught the vision for the story and suggested it be put into verse, which she masterfully accomplished. The rhyming and rhythm makes the book fun to read, while at the same time making it less tedious for the adult who will have to read it over and over! She also designed the layout of the pages to accentuate Kathleen's clever and touching illustrations.

A major publisher showed interest in We Serve Too! if only the two authors would tone down the flag waving. Instead, Paula and Kathleen formed Wee The People Publishing, LLC and published We Serve Too! *themselves*. Graphic Designer, Ryan Edick (Kathleen's son) of Redesigns reproduced, converted, and designed the work into the form necessary for production printing. The result is a quality book for our nations little heroes!

At least two more books are planned. One is finished and waiting for publication. We Serve Too! Two! is a book that speaks to a child's heart about reunion, that long anticipated day...and the not so easy days later. A third book is being planned, walking with a child through the homecoming of a wounded parent.

Our mission is to honor the service of those who give much more to those of us here at home than we can ever give back. We hope to help children through a difficult time in a family's life by acknowledging that *they* serve too, by honoring their sacrifice, and reminding them that their country is behind them.

We Serve Too! was designed with conversation between parent and child in mind. Anyone working with the child of a deployed soldier can use this book. In our parent section of the web site, there is a page by page discussion guide that a parent or other adult can use along side the book to help a child through this difficult time of separation.

While written with military children in mind, this book has been a valuable read for civilian children as well, giving them a glimpse into the unique life of a military family. It has served as a link between military and civilian families in our communities.

Besides, laughter and smiles, we have seen this book bring tears from time to time. Our prayer is that they may be healing tears that bring forth joy.

Kathleen Edick

Kathleen Edick was born in Camp Zama Japan,the daughter of military parents. A heritage of military family includes many who served in WWI, II ,Korea, and Vietnam .The families oldest son is an Army Sgt. who recently served in Iraq. She has been an advocate for children, a teacher, adoption caseworker and artist. She has taught parenting classes and loves being with her family. She is married to Don, an entrepreneur and football coach. They have four children and two military grand kids! Don and Kathleen's grandchildren ,five and three years old, were the inspiration for the book We Serve Too!

As Kathleen searched for a book that would explain her sons deployment, and what that would mean to her grandchildren, she found little for the young child. One day as after passing a playground and seeing children climbing a net, very much like soldiers do in basic training, the idea came to link the everyday experiences children have, with what their absent parent may be doing. Paula, also loved the vision, has a wonderful gift with rhyme, and together they created this book.

It is the first book for both Kathleen and Paula, the second book on reunion We Serve Too, Two! is finished and waiting in the wings. Kathleen says;The military deserves our appreciation and support. Children make a sacrifice of the parents time and attention which needs to be recognized by the American public. We need to care for and acknowledge that they indeed serve too!

Paula J. Johnson

Paula J. Johnson is a traditional soul. She grew up in a traditional farm family, one of five children on the Lind farm near Windsor, Colorado, with her grandparents just a skip across the pasture. She and her husband, Barry, continue this traditional lifestyle operating their farming business near Eaton, Colorado, having raised two sons on the Johnson family farm.

Working at home fine-tuned a variety of skills which Paula has found useful in the children’s book publishing world (i.e., storytelling, drawing, teaching, child-nurturing, scheduling, budgeting, etc). We Serve Too! is technically her second book, having published a family cookbook, Grandma Lind’s Famous Family-Pleasin’ Recipes in the 1970s. Also an artist, Paula designs and creates worship banners for her church and in 2004 received the City Choice Award at the Greeley Arts Picnic Fine Art Show for her watercolor, Wildflower Fanfare. She served for years on the North Colorado Medical Center Bioethics committee, as Mom’s Night Out leader for Home Educator’s Fellowship and continues to volunteer at the Weld County Fair.

Being a part of writing and publishing the book, We Serve Too! in part fulfills her desire to tangibly support the military, their families and their mission. Always a patriot, Paula finds great joy in helping strengthen families, agreeing with President Ronald Reagan’s sentiment that, “all meaningful change in America begins at the dinner table.”