52 Weeks Down…Day 365

Here we are: on the brink of the end!  I can’t help but look back over the deployment in awe of what God brought us through.  All of the strong “we can do this!” days, the days we were sick and trying to make each other feel better via skype, the weeks of no internet and one 15 minute phone call a week, the nights I cried myself to sleep curled up in his tshirt so I could smell like him clinging to my “little Ryan” doll thinking this day would never come….and it all ends with the countdown to mere hours now.  I’m such a bundle of emotions where i’m barely eating, can’t sleep, crying happy tears, driving around anxiously because I can’t sit still, and driving my dear friends (Kali and Noel) crazy with my obsessive phone calls so they can calm me down!

Our relationship began cautiously with both of us knowing that we would have to survive a year apart and praying that God would direct our paths.  A few weeks before D-Day we decided that we could make this work and knew we had something so incredibly special.  For a year we watched other couples (somewhat jealously) enjoy the holidays and daydream about “one day” that we would get to enjoy all of those big things as well as the little moments that seem unimportant to most.  Then came R&R which was a whirlwind and seemed like just a tease to have each other home for just a flash.  As everyone knows, he proposed in the most romantic way at sunrise on Miami Beach with a photographer and made me the happiest girl on earth!!!

Now homecoming that once seemed like a myth is within reach and it seems impossible.  It’s hard to believe that it’s almost our turn!  We have daydreamed of running (through the crowd of people) to each other for that first embrace, the first kiss, and the sigh of relief knowing that WE DID IT!!!!

Of course he is still in the Army and we will have many more “see you laters” and hellos, but it also allows for moments like this.  This sense of pride, completion, and falling in love all over again is worth all of those tears and prayers.  I’m so thankful for an amazing man of God who has become my best friend and who is everything I prayed for my whole life.  I never knew love like this existed and can’t wait to become one with him and to truly begin our life together!

Walking up to the hanger the day he deployed to Afghanistan…September 9, 2011