him around like a lost puppy, waiting for him to take the lead,
to take me in his arms and kiss me…you know that Movie
style kiss that I had built up in my mind. But he didn’t, the
kisses we had were forced on my part (feeling a little like
kissing a stranger) and desperate full of longing on his part.
We went to bed that night and he held me so close. We fell
asleep in each other’s arms just talking. Many nights and
days followed like that. It took us about a month to get back
into our groove, to find the rhythm that had always come so
naturally. But with a lot of patience and tons of love we did
find our way back there.
Life never works out the way you plan it. About two
months after he returned from the desert he headed back
for another 120 days, this time starting the second of nine
deployments in ten years. Within this time frame we went
through pilot training which was twelve months where we
got to actually live together in another state under the same
roof and finally, I always say “Start” our marriage. We had
been married three years by this time. We also started our
family during this year, the first of our three children were
born right after we moved home. As a family of five we have
weathered the ups and downs of military life. Our first son
learned to walk three days after his dad left, our second son
would not go to his daddy after he had been away on another tour, and all three of them learned how to Facetime at
the same time other kids were learning to talk. Our marriage
has suffered and strengthened both equally through all of it.
We are a family that values the little things. Having daddy home to help with bath time, or walking to get ice cream
and being able to hold his hand. We hug a little tighter and
love a little harder because living with the knowledge that he
could deploy is always in our hearts. I am a military wife, I
love my husband, and I am grateful every single day for our
life together and for the country that he serves. I recently
saw a quote on a sign that said “Live Like He Deploys Tomorrow”. And we do, we really do. And all of this is because
I fell in love with a boy. ✴
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