11 years ago I married my soulmate, my absolute other half. The past 11 years have been full of joy, hardships, pain, separations, love, growth, and innumerable happy moments. Each year I have looked at the man I married and loved him more.
Today our anniversary is falling on the exact day of the week that we got married! It's still funny to me that it was on a Monday. Who gets married on a Monday?! Someone whose committed to caring for every need of their future wife, that's who :)!
I can still hear M2's voice when he called a week before we got married asking me to fly to DC and marry him earlier than planned. He was so confident that I would say yes that he had already gotten a plane ticket. I was more than happy to oblige. Neither of us knew what kind of fierce opposition we would face from friends and family regarding that decision. We have always explained our decision in light of how the Army works since this was the easiest for everyone to understand. In the pre-911 Army world things were still run by Army personnel instead of civilians. It took weeks, if not months, for an enlisted guys status to change from single to married and receive BAH. No enlisted single soldier under E-5 could live off post and those under E-5 that were married definitely would not make it in the suburbs of Washington DC without BAH. The solution that was counseled to soldiers wanting to marry was that they would have to marry, then have the new wife stay with her family until BAH was established and permission was granted to the soldier to move. M2 was pulled aside one day and told that his Squad Leader could guarantee him on-post housing if we could get married in early July instead of August. So - there you go - a Monday wedding :)!
BUT ... that is only part of the story. When I finished out my school year in May at Mississippi State I had to go home to a home life that I had not been part of for more than 7 years. I had to endure harsh criticism at every turn for giving up a full ride scholarship to marry. Some remarks from this period of my life still sting to this day. My refuge came late May when I started work at the summer camp where M2 and I had started dating. It was a home to me for the summer and a place I absolutely loved! Summer camp would end just a few weeks before our planned August wedding. I literally had no where to go and the prospect of a few weeks being extended to a month or more while M2 tried to get BAH was enough to cause severe anxiety for me. I have always felt an enormous amount of gratitude for M2 taking his commitment to take care of me serious even before vows were exchanged. He boldly took control, told me I was going to fly to DC and marry him on that Monday, return to MS to finish out the last 3 weeks of camp and then he would have a place ready for me to come to - a loving home.
He has cared for me from that phone call till this day. Never letting me down. Never giving up on me. Always loving me. Always caring for me. Always showing me something so sacrificial.
I love him. More than words can express.
So, this is the story that resulted in a Monday wedding at the funeral chapel in Arlington Cemetery.
Crazy cool, huh?
