Marine Corps
Summer Love
11 years! How in the world can we be coming up on our 11 year anniversary? That means we have been together for over a decade… WOW! We’ve shared so many adventures together, from Marine Corps stateside to deployments, from one little girl to 2. We have seen and done so much in those 11 years that thinking back to that summer that we met just blows my mind. God knew where we would be now, but I can honestly say I didn’t have a clue! Who knew that one humid day in early June of 2005, I would meet the guy I was destined to marry. Well, God did.
Back in the summer of 2005, I had just graduate from high school. I was working part time at a local preschool, teaching Pre-K and part time at the local ball park for concession stand and gate. Oh and, for some weird reason, I thought it would be a good idea to join a co-ed softball team. Actually I was bribed into playing by one of my best friends. She said it would be good exercise for us and fun too! It was anything but fun. We were the youngest players on the team and they took the games way too seriously. We had just finished our regular season of softball, plus playoffs. We didn’t want to take anything seriously. Needless to say, we made it through about 1/2 the season then quit. It wasn’t for us.
Halfway Across the World
It has been 7 years since a tragedy hit half way across the world. 7 years since I thought I was going to be a single parent. It was the scariest thing I had ever been through and thinking about it now makes me shake. Even though I know the outcome and God’s amazing timing, tears still creep into my eyes when I think about that day. Writing this is tough but it reminds me how amazing God is.
Jeff was on deployment in Japan. He had been there for about 7 months but was beginning his journey home. I spoke with him the night before and he said they were to fly to Tokyo and catch a flight to California the next morning. I went to bed as I normally do but my morning was anything but normal. My phone began going off around 5:30 am, if I remember correctly. Text messages asking if Jeff was ok and if I had talk to him recently. I was so confused until I got a phone call from a family member. I honestly don’t remember who it was because their question was what stuck out to me.
“Is Jeff alive?”
