I remember the exact words spoken to me by my husband’s grandmother like it was yesterday, “Melissa, are you sure you’re ready for this?”
It happened to be right before our wedding. Needless to say, I didn’t understand at the moment what that question meant, nor how much it would impact me in the years to come.
You see my husband and I knew right from the moment we met each other, that we were done, off the market, meant to be together. To say our dating relationship before we got engaged was normal is a huge understatement.
I don’t think it can even be considered dating. He lived 3,000 miles away. Our “dating” consisted of late night Skype calls and endless text messaging. When we first met, I overheard a conversation he was having about being in the military. That’s about as far as that conversation went.
I don’t know if it was just the “I’m so in love” stage or the newness of everything, but I didn’t even think to ask him about his time in the military, why he joined in the first place, what he did, or anything for that matter. I didn’t think at the time it would ever impact us or myself.
Fast forward through seven years of marriage with one deployment under our belts and one child; I can truly say that we made it!
Not in the sense of crossing the finish line and we’re done, but when I take into account everything that we have endured, including what I have learned as a woman, wife of a soldier, mom, and the one keeping everything together as a family.
Has it been easy? No, absolutely not!
My husband deployed one month after we got married. I was 3,000 miles away from my home, family, and everything I ever knew. I can remember emailing him every single day hoping and wishing to get an email back or a phone/video call. It was about three weeks after he left that I finally got an email back saying he was ok and safe. Our emails back and forth were my lifeline to him.
The first six months of his deployment I went back to California to visit my family. During my time there I busied myself with making him care packages, going to church, coffee hangouts with my friends, the movies, and anything I could find to busy my mind.
Did it make the time go faster? Not all the time.
Some days were harder than others.
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