Sunday, April 28, 2013

10 years!!!

Doug and I have been married a decade and it feels amazing!  There's a wonderful song by Brad Paisley called "It Did" and this song describes well how we feel about each other.  
And I said to myself
It doesn't get better than this
No, it doesn't get better than this
And it did, it did, woah, it did

Our love for one another just keeps getting better and better!  Especially while Doug was deployed we felt our love strengthen and grow.  Our hearts were close even though we weren't. It felt like we were dating all over again with the way our hearts would go pitter patter when we'd see each other on skype or read a email from each other or the way I'd race to the phone when he'd call.

Doug was supposed to be in Afghanistan on April 26, but the Lord heard and answered our prayers and brought Doug home in time to celebrate our 10th Anniversary.  Back in January I went to the temple and while praying there I felt the Lord say, "Doug will home early but not on your timeline." Well, my timeline was our anniversary and the Lord was merciful and brought him back a whole month before!

So we wanted to go to a Caribbean Island to celebrate but circumstances provide us to get creative...we decided to have an island getaway on a lake in Nashville instead.  We rented a boat from the MWR on post, packed yummy food, bought new swimsuits, and we were set.  

Our plan:  Enjoy the Sunshine while boating on the lake, camp over night on an island and then do it all over again the next day.

Our reality:  The sun decided not to shine and the rains came in full force, so we had about 5 hours of overcast and we tried to stay warm snuggled up in the blanket I made Doug for an anniversary gift out of all of our Free Range T-shirts Kim had given us.  We still ate yummy food and really appreciated a warm fire to sit next to.  Instead of camping, we just drove home and slept in our own bed...and we slept in until 8:45am!!!  It was heavenly!

We were just so happy to be together!!!








Monday, April 1, 2013

God is Good!

The joy, relief, and love was so intense I felt everything around me glowed with a brilliant light!!! God is Good!


The DAY OF PREPARATION
We wrapped up birthday and Christmas presents for Dad!  
 Painted a sign.  Got a phone call he was coming home an hour early, so we quickly finished and got ready.  

WAITING AT THE HANGER
 I took some pics of the boys when we arrived at the hanger.


A friend from church, Becky Westover, offered to take pictures of us reuniting.  So the rest are from her, unless noted.
Boys entertaining themselves.
Bloody nose.

PLANE ABOUT TO LAND
Me telling the boys, "We did it!"  (Pela took the next two pictures)

 How happy we are that he's going to be landing soon!

 We see the plane!

 Yay!  
 When are they going to open the doors!!
 My dear friend Pela video taping.

 He's 7 out of 237 off the plane.
 Yay!  He's here!
 I'm jumping up and down flashing "I love you" signs.  He flashes a "two" back!
 I just saw him!
 They lined up in formation, opened the hanger doors and they marched in.
 We cheer as they enter.


 After a brief ceremony, they release them to see their families!
 We reunite!

 Hugs all around!

















 Love this.  Colt was holding on as Doug was kissing me.




 And one final kiss before they lined up again and marched out to turn in their weapons.
 We met up a couple hours later and headed home as a family!  There was a full moon which was cool and Doug liked his sign.