Happy Birthday to My Husband

This month is N's birthday month. April is really one of my favorite months because it is when you get the first true feelings of spring, because it is his birthday month, and because we have been blessed to share so many of his birthdays together. We have spent the last 8 years in a row together. Since we do not have a first dating anniversary, and because we have spent his birthdays together for so many years and from the very beginning of our relationship his birthday is truly my favorite day of the year. Because his birthday is during the school year he was guaranteed to be around all college and hs. My birthday being after the school year generally meant that he was seeing the world with the Navy and/or that I was visiting grandma. More often than not my birthday was synonymous with being apart while his was with being together. Here is a peak in to the past and our beginings.

2008- (He is 24/ I'm 21) We were here in Rhode Island while he undergoes Surface Warfare Officer's School. Because he is in the Navy, I am especially grateful that we were able to spend his birthday together. The weather has just been perfect and we are really looking forward to exploring the sites of this city before we trek back home.
2007- (23/20) It was his first married birthday. We were in New Jersey at his parent's home. It was a crazy busy day with school and we squeezed in Chinese takeout and a caravel cake.
2006- (22/19) We spent a quiet Sunday afternoon together.
2005-(21/18) Both of our families celebrated together at his house. He knew I was giving him a really beautiful pen that finished his collection. Since it was his 21st I thought I would also get him a really nice watch. As he is opening what he thinks is his pen, there is the watch and the look on his face was priceless as he says, "But where's the pen." Still gets me laughing 3 years later.
2004-(20/17) My mother and I surprised him at his Navy Spring Review Ceremony.
2003-(19/16) We had a sweet coffee date in the city his first birthday in college.
2002-(18/15) It was the spring before college. We went to a baseball game, went out for dinner, and went shopping all with my mom. haha.
2001-(17/14) The Sunday before I remember scheming about how to be together for his birthday. The perfect situation came out to be a tutoring one. So that Tuesday my parent's dropped me off at his house and he helped me edit and brainstorm about a research paper.

A Place to Call Home

N and I have been married 16 months, and for the first time since we've been married we have our own place (unless you count living in a hotel. lol) and are finally very much settled in! Turning the power on took a good week, and thanks to a missing fax and a broken piece the internet took two weeks. Thankfully we are all plugged in and settled in. The place is beautiful! I am actually getting concerned about getting too attached or used to how beautiful it is because it is not truly ours. I uploaded many pictures on facebook. After having our wedding gifts packed up in my parent's attic for about 2 years, it was such a wonderful time unpacking them, putting them away, and using them for the first time. I felt as a child at Christmas. We bought my dream bedroom set, tan couches, and my grandma bought us a washer and dryer for our birthdays. The setting up house and transition adjustments are mostly done thankfully. Yesterday we had one amazingly productive hour. We were able to get new titles, registrations, and license plates for our cars, new driver licenses and change over our voter registration. Biggest surprise of all the pictures turn out nice looking! lol. Adjusting from homework to housework has taken some time, but I am finally getting into a routine. Thankfully, I love order and that has been a great motivation to get the work done. I have taken off with the cooking and really love it. I am hoping to jump into the baking this week. I have a whole cabinet devoted to baking supplies, and I am looking forward to concocting new creations.

The church we are attending has been an amazing blessing! And the families are so friendly and beautifully inviting. This past week I was invited for a woman's movie night from the same family that first had us over. We watched the Taming of the Shrew. I love that play! Their fellowship in particular has just blown me off my feet. And tomorrow we are going over another very friendly and hospitably family's house. I certainly miss home and my loved ones so very much, yet God is blessing us in so many ways down here in VA. and I promise to update much more frequently. So please be reading :)

Home, But Not Really Home

My husband may be home and in the USA, but tonight he is not really home. For the time being he must stay on his ship overnight every sixth night. On these duty says, I usually visit, bring food, and hang out with him for a few hours. We usually watch a movie together. Tonight we watched the The Return of the King. We started The Fellowship of the Ring on Monday and have been working our way through the series this week. While watching I tapped the computer and the time appeared- 9:30!! Could it really be 9:30? My the evening had passed quickly! It meant that I had to leave in a half hour. My heart sank just as it did when we were dating and had to say goodnight, yet this time my mind flew with, "But he's my husband. Saying goodnight and parting makes no sense." I gathered my belongings, and we sat together for a few more precious moments before making our way out. He makes his way through, around, and all over that ship as if there is nothing to it, while it is a feat for me to go up a ladder without bumping my head or even opening one of the ship's doors. I love leading the way even though it ultimately means I will be making a few wrong turns in the process. Tonight I hit two dead ends, but what would be the point of making the most efficient exit anyway. With a kiss on my check, I was off to the gangplank (as I affectionately call the stairs to exit the ship). He may not be allowed to walk me to my car, but he watches me to it from the highest deck on the rear of the ship. I wave, he waves back, and we sign I love you. On goes the radio as my eyes well up with tears. I well up because I miss him, I well up because I have him, and I well up because the pain of those six months and four days apart comes flooding back. I may not sail the seven seas, steer a ship, command troops, or fire missiles, yet my patriotism is seen in many different ways such as cooking dinner and washing the laundry simply because through it all--- I am a military wife.

Feeling at Home

This past Sunday N and I visited the next church (we had been to four others already) on the list of pca churches in the area (there are no OPC around here). We were completely surprised with how at home we felt in this church. The service was extremely similar to service at home. They sang from the blue trinity hymnal and from the psalter, they were dressed on the formal side especially for this area, their children and babies were extremely quiet and well behaved during service, and they served wine in communion. This church also boasted several large families, and had a good porportion of all age ranges. We were pleased with their formality; we were shocked by their hospitality and friendliness. On our very first visit ever we got a dinner invitation. I did not know that people invited total strangers to their houses. We gladly accepted and could barely leave in enough time to make the dinner invite because so many people came up to talk to us. We throughly enjoyed dinner and our brand new friends. The strange part was that it did not feel awkward. The couple that invited us over had seven children between 22 and 10 years old. The 22 year old was a very recent graduate of grove city, and we were actually able to name a few people that we knew in common!! Around that table I felt as if I had found a long lost uncle and aunt. They were just so nice and at ease with us. It was just perfect and was actually the first time I have been in a house since my moving down to VA. After dinner as is their custom, we took a walk. I love walks. The houses we strolled by were mini-mansions made of stone and brick right on the water. So beautiful!! Attending the evening service and receiving the same amount of fellowship as in the morning, solidified our opinions that we have most likely found our match. What a blessing!!

HOME!! My husband is finally home!!

My life has surely done a 180 on me in the last twenty days. Everything seems different. Where do I start?? Well, the real story starts at the mall on Friday the 25th of January at 7 pm. I was in a dressing room when I got a call. Perhaps not the best place to get a call, yet when your husband is deployed there are no best or worst places to get phone calls. If your phone rings the drill is simple you drop whatever you are doing, and when necessary jump over anything in your way and run for it. Thankfully, it was husband!!! And it was not only my husband but my husband calling from his own cell phone rather than the ships line. It meant he had to be really close. I was so excited that he was calling from his cell phone that I started carrying on as a school girl and letting him know how excited I was that he was on his own phone. His words in return were “L, listen very carefully” – I came to a sudden halt and my joy was replaced apprehension - sounded like the beginning of a covert operation but his next words were a flood of relief. He was coming home 3 days early!! After coping through making up a more distant date than the Navy gave me of his home coming so not to get disappointed if he was extended – my husband was actually coming home early!!! 3 whole days! It might sound crazy to get excited about 3 days- but you would understand if you have a loved one deployed. Those last days were dragging on and on and as the day got closer I got worse and worse because very soon does not mean the same thing as now. His coming home early meant for the first time in six months I needed all the time I had. Without him every hour closer to him was a triumph. After months of counting down the months, weeks, days, and hours- I no longer had time to count. I had a place to go and person to meet- MY HUSBAND!!!!

After jumping up and down in the dressing room, I dropped what I was doing and ran. I finally got home, finished packing and left in the morning!!! It was certainly felt like a very long six hour drive even though I was blessed with great weather and zero traffic. I thought I would have shed more tears of joy and relief because of the momentousness of this drive. But just as it happened at our wedding, the moments I think I am going to cry I never do. I did greet that Welcome to Virginia sign with teary eyes-I was in Virginia!! I was going to see my husband tomorrow! Yet, I was also feeling that I was now in my usurped state of VA. I might live in you, Virginia, for the next three years, but you certainly do not feel like home. By-passing the long line of visiting cars, I sailed through the base gate with my car decals. I was tired from the few hours of sleep I had gotten the night before and the drive, yet my soul wouldn’t rest until I saw the pier. Looking at that empty pier 16, gazing at the water, and listening to the quiet waters all by myself in the haze of dusk was my own way of saying farewell to this deployment.

I was so thankful for my sound slumbers the night before the big day. I awoke before the sun, curled my hair, and prepared to meet my husband. So happy and so excited!!
I was out the door by 8:30 am with a 5 min drive ahead of me. When I got to the pier, I saw another ship and I thought for a second that I had missed the arrival. But I hadn’t and proceeded to line the pier with the rest of the families. It was a beautiful morning. Yet still a cool winter morning which made me pleased with my planning of a long wool coat, a pair of knee high boots, and leather gloves. It was so exciting and rather very strange to feel so comfortable with complete and utter strangers. I had never seen any of these faces before, yet this is where I finally fit in because on this strange pier in this strange state of VA these families were just like me counting down to this very day until their loved ones came home. I was right next to a girl who had been married to her husband half the time I had been to mine before the ship went out. Seeing the mothers of the babies born during the deployment sent my tears flowing. After months of getting sympathetic hugs and smiles, it was my time to ache for these others who went through more than I did. The strength of having a baby with a husband out to sea awed me as my heart said a prayer that I too would be strong if such is God’s timing for us. The Navy band's tunes carried into the air as we waited together, and when the ship rounded the corner and first came in sight there was a beautiful cheer.
It was just amazing. So after tugging and pulling in backwards, the ship was there at its port all safe and sound. There was more waiting. My heart was torn between complete happiness that my husband was safe and impatience because I wanted to be with him now. We had to wait about an hour for the ship to get tied down and a crane to help. So, I waited with a huge smile and teary eyes. And there he was my husband!!!!!!!!! I wanted to jump on the ship (go on this gangplank) but I waited where I was because I told him where to meet me and out of fear my heel would get stuck in gangplank grid. It felt as a dream as he hugged me and kissed me and we walked back to the car together. It was a crazy normal feeling. I knew being with him was normal, yet I felt as if I was on a cloud. He said that being with me felt completely normal and that the last six months were what felt like a dream. We both were once again whole.