Today I decided to opt out of sharing a free font or digital graphics post. I have a little something more appropriate to the day planned.
It’s Valentine’s Day, and I am missing the love of my life so much today. I pulled out our boot camp letters, and I am planning on snuggling up and reading them all today.
I wrote him almost every day & his letters to me (over 30 of them) are one of my most treasured possessions. There is nothing like a good old fashioned love letter to make a girl fall in love all over again! 🙂
We’ve been “in the Marines” for over a year now, and today I thought that I would share some reflections to share from my personal experience so far.
I never knew I was this strong. Being a Marine Wife has been quite an adventure so far. While my husband hasn’t been deployed, we have still had our full of the separation you expect from military life. In fact, I have yet to live with my husband since he joined the Marines last January, which makes it over a year of him being away in training. And to make things worse, due to all the snow days they have had lately, his MOS graduation date just got pushed back ANOTHER week. Will we ever have a normal life? Haha!
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| Just before Silas left for his last phase of training in January |
My stomach feels sick when I think about how crazy this last year has been. Being apart from him is definitely the hardest thing I’ve had to do. I have basically been living like a single mom for the past 13 months…I am so thankful that I have had lots of support from our family. But this part of our Marine life is almost over, so chin up Hannah!
In mid March we will be getting stationed at our permanent duty station… and we will be together!!!! I can’t wait to actually see my husband every day & for our daughter, June, to be able to play with her Daddy! And I am going to have an actual home to live in (yay!!!) It’s going to be a blast to be able to unleash this DIY spirit inside of me! Haha!
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| My treasured stack of boot camp letters from my husband. |
I don’t think I would have ever been able to understand how hard military life is, and I hope I never have to go through my husband being away at war, like both of my amazing grandmothers did. To all those who have gone before me: you are all so brave and strong!
Here is a little something I wrote a few months ago when I moved down to live near where he was stationed at the time in Florida. He has since been stationed in Virginia for a few months and I moved back up to New England to be close to family.
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“It’s funny the things you take for granted in life. Big things like your husband living at home with you, or the small things like him being able to wear civilian clothes. Those things are things that I never would have thought my family would have to compromise.
So yes, my husband being in uniform in all of my INSTAGRAM photos wasn’t a coincidence… for the past 11 months he hasn’t been allowed to live or do overnight visits with us, and he hasn’t been able to wear civilian clothes except on leave (a grand total of 10 days in-between boot camp and MCT!) Good thing I think he looks hot in his uniform! 😉
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| Me getting gas for the first time by myself while my husband was in training! Pretty lame, huh? Haha!
The Marines have taught me some pretty good life lessons. I am no longer the girl who thought she would never be independent, and was scared of the idea of even going to Walmart by herself (don’t laugh!) Now I am the woman who is used to sleeping by herself alone at night in a state that is 24 hours away from her nearest friends and family.
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These are a few of my favorite screen shots for all of our skyping 6 months into training before we moved down to be near him.
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I remember when he told me about the housing policies in Pensacola (that I could technically move down, but that he would have to stay in barracks) I told myself that it would still be worth it to me to move down to be near him even if I could only see him for an hour a day… Ironically that is what happened, as student Marines have to live on base and can’t go off base except during the day on weekends (I should have raised my expectations, haha!)
Now I know what it’s like to be a single mom. When I go out the door I feel like I need eight arms, and have often held all of the following at the same time: 1 wiggly two year old, my ginormous purse, the bulky cooler, a potty training seat, baby bottle hanging by a nipple in between my teeth, with the car and apartment keys in my hand. I must look crazy to my neighbors… But I prefer to think of myself as a superhero! Haha!
I’m not complaining at all because my life really is so amazing and I couldn’t ask for a better husband and daughter. I don’t regret any of the choices Silas and I have made. After all, I know that this is where God wants our family. My husband is the best choice I ever made and I can’t believe I was so lucky to have caught his eye!
I am so exhausted and all I want is for my family to be together. But the end if the tunnel is near. I can’t wait to see June’s face when she realizes that her Daddy will actually be coming home every day. The bright side is that after coming out strong through all the sucky-ness, you can’t help but view that normal life is amazingly attractive!
Being married to a United States Marine? Now that’s true love!”
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So that’s it for now. My life is kinda crazy and we have just over 30 days until we are a family again & I can stop living (and Blogging) out of a box! I’ll keep you all updated though. 🙂
I love you Hannah! You are such a strong and amazing women! Thank you for sharing your heart. It's so beautiful to see!
Oxoxxox
Nia
Love you too Linda! I'm so thankful for such an encouraging, beautiful friend!
I loved this! My dad is in the British infantry so I can relate a lot; some times it felt like this was my mum who wrote this! We've lived abroad, too so that makes it even harder. It's nice to see people understand how you feel!
Thank you for your sweet note, Alice. It really is something that you can't understand or really relate to unless you've been through it yourself, isn't it? It kinda makes me feel like we are all one big family. XOXO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk_5VN_EGfE