Can I be totally transparent for a moment?
Jonathon and I dated when I was in high school. He was based about 40 minutes away from me and already in the Air Force. He was my first boyfriend, and I loved every minute with him.
He ended up breaking my heart, as to be expected since we were so young. We weren't going to be together forever, but I didn't know that. I didn't think about that. I just knew I really liked him and was so upset over him breaking up with me.
We went about our lives for 3 years or so before I was on Facebook and saw he was friends with a guy I was also friends with. I decided to be brave and shoot him an email. He responded. Gasp.
He was based in Germany, but as my timing would have it, he'd be visiting his parents (8 hours from my house) in just a few weeks. He made plans with me to visit and catch up. Gasp again. And he did visit me. We met up and played some miniature golf. I'm sure he won. That didn't matter. I loved being around him. I loved everything about him. As the weekend wrapped up, we said goodbye. We stayed in touch with texts, emails and phone calls. We didn't officially start dating again for a couple of months.
He lived in Maryland now, and I in Colorado. We tried to see each other as much as possible. A weekend here and there. We'd take turns making the 3 hour plane ride and the expense that comes along with it. We'd sight see, do activities, eat out and be as real of a couple as we could for 48 hours.
He asked me a few times to move to Maryland. I hesitated. Leaving everything I've known to be with someone that I wasn't married to (even at 19 years old) didn't make sense to me. I promised God this relationship would be pure because I wanted to give it a fighting shot - with his blessing.
He called me one day saying he received orders to Iraq. For a year. A whole year. 365 days. In Iraq. What was I going to do? Our already very little time together just slipped away. Gone. With one piece of paper. Or probably a lot of papers, but whatever. I didn't want to be apart anymore.
We had a talk, a very frank talk, about marriage. I told him I just wanted to be married before I moved. I made it clear that I didn't think we could do long distance anymore. It was hard. We both needed more and it wasn't going to work long term. We had already hung on for a year. So there it was, a decision to get married. We discussed getting married on his two week R&R from Iraq. Who can plan a wedding around a war? We did. We pictured a fall wedding, warm colors, cool air and everyone we loved there. Then another phone call came. Jon told me his R&R changed to February and he was worried I wouldn't marry him so soon. We changed everything and made it work.
The wedding was beautiful. I had everything I wanted. I planned every detail. I didn't anticipate the fallout of this day, the hardships we endured, the adversity we faced and all of the tears we'd cry.
2 comments:
I have been checking in over the years and seeing your family growing. I am going to be a grandmother 7/17/2014 and waiting to meet my first grandchild and a boy will be a moment we talked about on-line years ago. Life is full surprises. Heaven sees us and all our loved ones are smiling.
happy springtime hugs,
Joyce Trujillo(Tyler's mom)
Joyce, I just saw this! How great to hear from you. Congratulations on becoming a grandmother! How exciting. What a blessed child to have you as their grandma. You were always a safe place for me, I am so glad you're doing well. My old email no longer works - my new one is nataliebay914@gmail.com. I would love to stay in touch!!
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