you want to know what love looks like?

Want to know the strength and depth of your marriage?

Spend months apart from the man you married.

Deployments are tough, but I have learned that my marriage is tougher.

We have endured a lot of separation, a lot of experiences on our own, and have weathered many ups and downs without the one we love most at our side. This lifestyle can chip away at so many things a marriage depends on, and I have seen marriages I considered good break apart.

And I have also seen such wonderful examples of love and marriage and the strength of relationship all around me. I have seen husbands look at their wives with such adoration, such respect and it just sets my soul at ease to see my friends be so loved. And then I see these wives, marching on through hard days, with hearts as soft as putty, just needing their husband but getting by with an email and the promise of reunion. Someday. These ladies who could use the strength and comfort of their husbands loving arms every single day, but look at pictures of their husbands and feel the love from far away, and somehow, it's enough.

If you ever want to see what deep, pure love looks like, watch a homecoming. There is nothing in the world like seeing your husband step off a helicopter, or an airlift, or come through the gates at an airport after being gone for months on end. Nothing. And even more amazing, knowing that the pure joy that has taken over my heart is being felt by the lady to me left, to my right, behind me, and in front of me. It's all over their faces. I have watched tears spill down cheeks, grown woman shrieking and squealing because they cannot suppress their giddiness, and mother's tripping their children so they could reach their guy first. (oh, wait. that was me.)

From this...........

and this.....

\

to this...

and this.



thanks for the pictures, Billie Jo!!!

Welcome Home!

So today my heart is light and full of love for my man and I am focusing on the day I
get to rejoice in his homecoming! The day I get to be the girl in the pictures, beaming, eyes wet with happy tears and clinging tightly to the guy who is my whole entire world!

***And to my Navy wife friends....each and every last one of you is beyond amazing. I learn from you, I laugh with you, and my heart aches with you. From the wives I met at 40, to the amazing girls who I loved at 15, and to the new ladies who make me smile at 48! You all are so wonderful and I am better for having known each one of you. Thank you for being an example of strength, kindness, and love and for being my family when family was thousands of miles away.