How I Met My Husband

I tried to post this the other day, but of course, blogger went down and decided to only save half!  I hope you enjoy!

I had been dating a guy who was in the Navy, and when he left for a deployment, he decided to cheat on me over there.  Honestly, I'm kind of glad now, because I could have REALLY screwed up my life if I married him. 

So, I went through a little bit of a rough period in my life.  But I have always been patriotic, so I decided to sign up to send a troop some carepackages.  The war had started maybe a year or 2 before.  So, I signed up for soldier's angels.  I submitted my name to "adopt" a soldier.  I prayed before I hit the send button.  I was threw with men, and I asked God that if ANYTHING was going to come from this, that it was going to be the one.  I didn't want to play games or guess anymore.

So, I got my name and contacted the guy.  He was 34 married, and had 4 kids.  Needless to say, he got a lot of mail.  He was only asking for things for the kids in Iraq.  I asked him if he knew someone who didn't get a lot of mail.  He sent me Chad's e-mail.

I contacted Chad, and told him where I got his e-mail from.  We started talking, and became friends.

Soon the time came for him to come home for his 2 weeks leave.

I think he was joking, or being nice, but he had invited me to come up and see him on his 2 weeks leave.  He was going to New Hampshire where his parents live, and where he is from.  I don't really know how, but I convinced my parents to let me go up there and meet him for the first time!  I know they prayed a lot, and they also talked to Chad on the phone.  My dad thought it was the coolest thing because he was in Vietnam and only got one 10 minute CB call home the whole time they were there.  My dad tried scaring him away with gun talk, but Chad came back telling him a ton of info about the guns he was talking about.  I think my dad fell in love then ;)

So, I fly to New Hampshire.  I really wasn't nervous, but my dad was a little emotional.  He was the one who took me to the airport, and after he dropped me off, he had called me and left a voicemail that I didn't get until I got to my layover.  He was crying...Rip my heart out!!!  I was perfectly calm, until I get to the baggage claim in New Hampshire, look around, and see all women in the airport.  Well, as far as I can remember they were all women.  I was thinking "Well, at least he isn't some old man trying to get me by pretending to be a soldier".  Then I see him walk into the airport with the BIGGEST smile on his face. 

Come to find out, he was going to try and steal a piece of my luggage...but decided not to with airport security there.  Punk...

We had the most wonderful 9 days together with his family in Maine and New Hampshire.  (I will post pictures in a minute).

Then it came time for us to part our ways.  Unfortunately I had booked my ticket for 5 hours after his was supposed to take off.  I tried to get my flight time changed, but they could only get me on a flight 2 hours after his.  They even had to pay people to get off of his flight it was so overbooked.  That was the hardest thing.  Seeing him leave to the same airport I was going to, and not being able to go with him.  I wasn't even able to see him when I got there, because he was in a special place they keep soldiers going back to their deployment.   I also had a 6 hour layover there because they couldn't change my connecting flight.  It was horrible...

I finally got home at 11 p.m. and was just ready to go home and not worry about it anymore.  He actually stayed in Atlanta for 3 more days because his planes kept malfunctioning, even running off of the runway a couple of times!! 

He was back in Iraq for 4 more months, then the time came for him to come home for good!!  I was able to go up to his base, and welcome him home.  I guess you could say the rest is history!