The proposal

Austin and I had been friends for several years before we started dating in 2003, shortly after he had decided to end his break in service and rejoin the Army. We were both living in our hometown at the time. He was all set to ship off to Fort Drum, New York. A fact that I choose to ignore at the time. After just a few weeks he apparently decided New York just wasn't going to work. He put in a request to be stationed at Fort Riley, KS....the closest duty station to our home town that he could go to at the time. Lucky for us the Army decided this was where they wanted him. He moved to Riley and one of us would make the two hour drive every weekend to see each other. Eight months later Austin was deployed to Iraq.

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 I wrote or sent him a card EVERY single day....just ask any of the "guys." (He caught lots of hell for it!) After the longest 8 months of my life, Austin got to come home for two weeks on R&R! Apparently in those 8 months he decided he couldn't live without me and proposed at the airport, in front of all of our friends and family after getting off the plane! 

Deployments are hard, REALLY hard....but not everyone gets to experience the pure joy and excitement of a homecoming. It's an unimaginable, un-comparable high that I will cherish and remember forever. 

We were married at the court house a week later! A week after that, on Valentine's Day, my husband went back to Iraq. In the months following, I moved to Fort Riley by myself, got us a house set up, a job and waited....

When Austin returned 4 months later we had a 'real' wedding, went on our honeymoon, and are living happily ever after! HA! Well....most days! ;-)