The start of my Journey as a Navy Wife

It is officially 2010. The past year, 2009, was full of challenges, but look at me. I'm still standing. When you are 22 you think you are grown up. You think you have fully matured. But you are wrong. The year 2009 has shown me that.

September 27, 2008. Our wedding day

In October of 2008, my husband left for boot camp after he and I had only been married a month (Married September 27, 2008). It was a tough time. I never let my phone leave my side. I didn't want to miss a call from him. I ran to the mail-box every Wednesday, that's when his letters would arrive. They say letters keep the our men in uniforms strong and keep them going while in boot camp or deployed, but every wife I have talked to that waited while their man in uniform was away has said how much the letters helped them. They kept us strong. Never knowing when he would get to call, expecting to hear from him on Thanksgiving day.. and the phone never ringing. I wrote him every single day, It was like therapy for me.I looked forward to writing him. In December of '08, it was finally time for him to graduate. It was a long ride from Nashville to Great Lakes, but the excitement and knowing I was going to feel his arms around me after all that time, was worth it. I thought to myself, "Our life together is finally starting.". But I would soon find out, the Navy had it's own plans.

December 19, 2008. Boot Camp Graduation day.

January of 2009 had started. I was with my Sailor. I only had a few more days before he had to report back to NAS Pensacola for A-School. January 4 was the day we had to say our goodbyes once again. He was set to graduate February 19. This made me happy. My birthday is February 20, and I thought I would get to spend it with him. After he had been in Pensacola for 2 weeks, he still had not started his schooling, His rate had been put on hold. February came, I went for a weekend visit. Still school had not started. March was another visit to see him, school had not started. Another visit in April and they finally told him he would start school. I was excited. I went for my last visit to Pensacola in May. He would be home soon. May 29 he called. I wished him a Happy Birthday. He then said, "I have some good news and some bad. Which do you want first?" I said I wanted the bad news, but he just gave it all to me at the same time. "The good news is, I graduated today. The bad news is.. I was going to surprise you and come home today, But they mixed up our tickets with another class and we are stuck here until Monday.". My heart sank... But he would be home soon! I didn't even know he would be graduating that day. He didn't tell me because he wanted to surprise me when he showed up at the front door. The following Monday came and they handed out tickets. Nick stood there ticket-less and they said "Who are you?". Nick told them, and they were confused. They had lost his service records. Nick graduated the top of his class and received the accelerated advancement, but none of that mattered right then. He was a nobody, and he couldn't come home until they found his file. Nick was there for over a week longer before they finally found his service records and arranged him a flight home. He told me a bogus date though and one day I was sitting at the computer talking to a friend I felt cold hands cover my eyes. I jumped out of my seat. My Nicholas was home, and we had orders to Virginia.

Last Trip to Pensacola May 2009

Nick's sponsor had told him a bunch of wrong and useless information. Everything he had told him about me coming down, to housing, BAH, everything.. was wrong. Nick left for Virginia and I was stuck in Nashville waiting. Nick was having to take classes in Portsmouth at the ship yards, and didn't have time to take the Movers class they were requiring before the military movers would come pack up your stuff. So we decided we would do it on our own. We were tired of waiting. I drove 13 hours to Virginia to apartment hunt. Every area I went to seemed like a bad neighborhood. We finally found an apartment. I liked it, Nick liked it. We signed the lease, Now we just had to get our things from Tennessee. I went back to Tennessee and packed all of our things. My parents borrowed a trailer and helped me move everything. I was finally with my husband. This was the end of June.

Finally in Virginia together

We have got to spend so much time together since then. We have been finally getting the chance to adjust to married life and on top of that the challenge of being married and being a military spouse. We attended our first command picnic. There was so many people there! Made me smile to see everyone come together like that and have all the activities they had going on. We went to the Jason Aldean concert at Little Creek and had a blast! We drove 7 hours to Bristol one weekend with a friend, it was a blast. We dressed up as Joker and Mrs. Batman for Halloween and handed out candy to the kids. One kid said Batman looks good as a woman. He was about 7 years old. It made my night. We cooked a big dinner for Thanksgiving and we invited the guys from the ship that couldn't go home. Sadly only one guy got to come because the ones that couldn't go home had duty, but we have decided to do it every year that their ship is not on Cruise. Christmas came and we got leave approved to go home. It was the first time we had seen our family in months. We came back to Virginia with 2 days of his leave left to spend it together and relax. He had duty on New Years day, but we stayed up and watched the ball drop together and get our midnight kiss.

October 31, 2009. Joker and Mrs. Batman

 I have met some amazing ladies. No one truly understands like military wives. I have yet to face a deployment, but I know that when that time comes I will have amazing military wives to fall back on and I am here for them to fall back on as well. All of my experiences have made me a better person. It has made my love for my husband grow so much stronger, which I did not think was possible because I thought noone could love anyone anymore than I loved him. I am so much more patient now. I know to expect anything and worrying all the time gets you nowhere. I have learned that being negative about the military gets you nowhere. This is his job. He chose this life for us. I support him and I support our Military. This rollarcoaster is an experience you will either love or hate, but it's your choice. Life is what you make of it. Why not make the best of it?

I know that 2010 will be full of challenges. I have overcome a lot in 2009 and I look forward to the challenges of 2010. I know I'm strong enough to get through whatever it may throw my way.

“You were only given this life because you are strong enough to live it.”