Home.

When you hear the word home what comes to mind for you? For me, this week, it's my husband.  Tomorrow, July 22nd, we will celebrate that we have been married for five years!  We have a great deal to be thankful for!

You might be wondering why the word home would make me think of him, or what the story behind it might be.  Under the Love Story tab you may have read what I've posted so far about how we came to be together and fall in love.  What I have not yet posted are some of the incredible mountains and valleys that we have been through since committing ourselves to one another before the Lord, our family, and friends (of course more will be posted there soon!).

Before my husband and I dated I knew that he was A. in the Army National Guard and had a very good chance of soon deploying overseas, and B. was in the middle of a path to a nursing degree from a four-year university.  ...and I dated him anyways :)  He says, to this day, that he is still surprised that I didn't run screaming in the other direction.  But the heart wants what it wants.  And I wanted him, and still do, every day for the rest of my life.  Less than two weeks after we were married, I drove him to his armory, from where he would "ship out."  He would then spend a few months in another state training and I would fly out to see him for a long weekend.  After this training he'd come home for a week and then we wouldn't see each other for 10 long months.  We would meet in the beautiful country of Germany for our one year anniversary (my plane ticket was my "paper" wedding gift! how's that for a one-year gift?? pretty incredible if you ask me!) and spend two and a half weeks exploring together. After this we'd wait yet another 3 months to finally be reunited for good, making the first 15 months of our marriage spent an ocean apart. During these 15 months God watched over and blessed our relationship in so many ways. We learned to communicate better, wrote real love letters, emails, used video chats for the first time, and sent each other packages to have real tangible pieces of home.  Home...there's that word again.  During this time I heard Michael Buble's song Home.  It resonated with me so deeply. It doesn't matter what beautiful place you're surrounded by or how many people are keeping you company (and I had a great support network of close family and friends), true home, for me, is wherever he is, wherever we can be together.  It's not this structure under which we sleep in our warm beds, it's not the furniture or stuff we've accumulated.  Home is us. Together. Connected. I would go or move anywhere as long as it's with him.

We would go on to endure more separation as he completed his nursing degree at a university over three hours from where we live.  Physical separation is never easy and brings with it trials, but can also bring blessings of which you've never dreamed.  We appreciate more about each other than we ever thought we would.  We love the ordinary, repetitious things of married life that some might take for granted.  We like grocery shopping together or running errands together.  When you have so little time with someone, those moments become precious.  You see things in them and sides of them that you may not have otherwise seen. It deepens your love for them, the value you place in your relationship with them, and how you pray for them.  It shows you what is truly important in life.  Home for me has been a train speeding through the magnificent forests in Germany, a tearful goodbye or reunion at an airport, a tiny two-room apartment off-campus filled with more love than you can imagine, a breathtaking balcony view at the foot of the highest mountain on our first anniversary, hanging on for dear life on top of that mountain together, and so many more moments that have filled our lives.

I am blessed beyond words to be married to a godly, sweet, kind, compassionate, creative, honorable man, who chose to spend his life with me by his side, and that God has given us these wonderful five years together. I am sure there are many more great ones to come.  Home is where my heart lies...with him.