Project Compassion is a non-profit organization which is honoring every fallen American Soldier, each and every one that died on active duty since the attacks of September 11, 2001 by painting their portrait as a small way of expressing gratitude to the war heroes who laid down their lives for this country.

So far hundreds of families across the nation have received portraits of their fallen loved ones thanks to Project Compassion. To help fund more portraits, please donate to this worthy cause, and I rarely ask my readers to donate, click here.

CNN, Portraits of fallen comfort broken hearts

Not long after Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Kirven was killed in an insurgent ambush in Afghanistan on Mother's Day in 2005, his family was contacted by a stranger.

Beth and Michael Belle hold the portrait of Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Kirven, who was killed in Afghanistan.

Could an artist halfway across the country paint his portrait as a gift for his loved ones?

"I immediately wrote back and said I'm so interested," recalled Beth Belle, Kirven's mother.

She sent a few photographs of her son and several weeks later, when the painting arrived at her Fairfax, Virginia, home, Belle said she and her husband were in awe.

"We both started to cry, it was so beautiful," she said.

"Sometimes, even though it's been as long as it's been, I come around the corner and it takes my breath away because it's such a likeness of Nicholas."