[caption id=“attachment_10295” align=“aligncenter” width=“546”]Roman_kits Trevor Romain, center, has developed a host of kits to help military kids get through tough times. USO photo[/caption]

The second day of Wishbook is dedicated to a group that can get lost in the shuffle.

Family resilience has become a major topic over last 12 years of deployments. This includes children in military families, who go can struggle through months of uncertainty while their parents are doing some dangerous work. To help these kids through the tough times, the USO partners with The Comfort Crew and the Trevor Romain Company to distribute a variety of kits tackling issues like deployment and reintegration, bullying and what to do if the unthinkable happens while their parent is serving in harm’s way.

As Romain explained during an April summit at the USO Warrior and Family Center at Fort Belvoir, Va., younger kids aren’t always psychologically equipped to deal with reintegration in a way their adult parents can understand.

“When children have come up to us after [presentations], really what they needed was validation of what they were going through, instead of somebody trying to fix it for them,” he said. “There was a young boy recently who came up to us and just started crying. I said ‘Are you OK?’ And he said, ‘I am now’ and turned around and walked away.” “He needed that place to feel comfortable.”

This holiday season, you can help children in military families who are going through that same type of emotional journey by giving them the gift of a kit that lets them know they’re not alone.