Post-Wedding + Pre-Deployment

I married him on a warm August afternoon with the sun and big gorgeous clouds overhead and the people we adore all around us. It was beautiful and hot and I didn't even get to talk to everyone that came. I felt so incomparably happy, as if I was living a surreal fairy tale, but it was real and it was my life! So many incredible people made it happen and we are humbled and blessed by the whole event.

He whisked me away to the southern Caribbean for a blissful tropical cruise with horses and dolphins and islands. Then we moved into our first home in Manhattan Kansas. The little apple. And we lived happily by the grace of God for two whole months. We immediately found a great little church that we love and made some wonderful new friends.

But all good things must come to an end. Or as in our case, a hiatus at the very least. My soldier's nine month deployment to Kuwait became real once we received his Orders. We rented a storage unit and started packing up the things I'd just finished completing our home with. I stopped buying groceries and starting making weird composite dishes of whatever food was in the fridge.

And last week was the hardest yet, for a few reasons, but we survived. I decided mascara was futile and went without. There were some hard, dark nights where I questioned a lot of things, including things unrelated to this army life. But I learned grace and forgiveness in my marriage, and I'm continuing to learn how to exhibit both.

I'm living the final few days of semi-normal life with my brand new husband. They bumped up his leave-day, so he leaves earlier than we had planned. And I plan on leaving the day after him, so all the packing/moving/storing will be done. Those wonderful new friends we made are helping to make that all happen.

I am learning a lot about this military life. I'm very proud of my strong and capable Lieutenant. He works very hard and represents the best of what America has to offer. But that doesn't make this whole process much easier. Quite frankly I expect to cry a lot at random times.

Many of you have asked how to pray for us. I cannot express to you how powerful your prayers have been in the recent weeks. Thank you.


Things to pray for:
- Emotional stamina these next 6 days
- Aaron's safe passage to his base in Kuwait. For quick layovers and arrival.
- Kelly's safe journey back to South Carolina
- That all 247 days apart will only enhance their love and unity
- For Aaron to find good, godly community at his base in Kuwait
- For Aaron's purpose at his base to keep him and his soldiers busy
- That this would be a special time of individual growth and spiritual maturity in both Kelly and Aaron's lives
- That Kelly would be productive in her Master's program and various pursuits while staying with her parents in NC
- For Kelly to be able to find them a good home in Kansas next summer to move into before Aaron gets back
- Safety: physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. 

If any of you would like to send Aaron a care package, or contribute to my regular care packages for him, please let me know! I know every little thing from home means so much to them.
Aaron is missing our first holidays as husband and wife:Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and my birthday. Any chance to make the roughly 7,000 miles between us feel less!

And because I like to drown my sorrows in humor...

Wedding photos by Julia Laible Photography

Go live it up!

Invictus

BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Out of the night that covers me,

      Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

      I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

      Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul.

I'm pretty obsessed with this poem. It's always been a favorite. I love the cadence, I love the imagery. I love the power of it. This poem inspires me, and I hear Braveheart music playing in my heart whenever I read it. Now I don't necessarily agree with everything in the poem, but its a call. 

It is the horn of Rohan calling the Rohirrin (me) out of complacency and mediocrity into adventure and passion. This scene gets me every time:

Sometimes we all need a little inspiration pick-me-up. After a long work week, when the heart is weary and worn, we need this. This moment of decision. The decision to live FULLY right now. I've already talked about how I live in a fantasy world, but this is simply letting in some of the characteristics of the fairy tale into the true story. It's so worth it!

Fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith! (paraphrased from 2 Tim 4:7) 

This life is beautiful and tragic and awe-inspiring. You don't have to go to the movies all the time to be reminded of glory- you can choose to live it out every day! As a Christian I am called to this, and as humans we get to experience this stunning world in ways no other living thing can. It's your life! Go LIVE IT!

So go out an conquer this weekend! Do all your chores, or do none! Get ahead on your homework, or procrastinate! (actually don't do that). Go outside and breathe and be alone, or spend the weekend with real, living, thinking human beings! Get off your computer and go talk to a face! Put down the remote and pick up a book! Call your family and email a friend! Worship God besides Sunday morning! Watch the Superbowl, or just enjoy the food, commercials and national anthem like me! Don't spend any money, or decide to blow a little bit of extra cash! Don't STRESS!

 THAT is how we live out an epic, inspired life. Relationships, experiences, Truth. Go get drunk on that this weekend. And your Monday will be like a new opportunity instead of a hangover. 

And you can take THAT to the bank!

(...but only if it's SunTrust...since I'm a banker there now....and only if you let me open your account..)