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Uncategorized 11 Comments

Military Love Story: Tara & G

Today I’m excited to share with you another unique military love story from Tara who blogs over at An Aiming High Wife. Thank you Tara for sharing your story!

My name is Tara, and though my husband and I have been married for the last three years, we’ve been together for the last six (ish). We have called five houses and three states home, and  we also have one beautiful daughter.

Our love story is a story of how a single text message can change everything.
My husband (we’ll refer to him as “G”) and I meet in college. He was a junior in ROTC and I was a freshman. We hung out occasionally but were never close friends; We always seemed to be in different places. He knew where his life was headed and I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
After G graduated college he was off to training and then to Korea for his first assignment. In the meantime, I was still in college. We lost touch and didn’t speak for nearly three years.
A little over six years ago on the 4th of July I received a text message from a number I didn’t recognize. At the time I was in Las Vegas with a few of my friends and we were in a taxi on the way to the airport. When I texted back asking who was texting me, G answered with just his first name. I actually had to ask him what his last name was! I was surprised hearing from him.
We continued texting, and when I landed in Philadelphia for my layover he called me. We talked as if we were always the closest of friends.
After two months of texting and phone calls I was preparing to go on vacation with my family to the beach, and by family I mean with my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Since I was allowed to invite a friend every year I asked G if he wanted to go with me; He agreed!
Since I had to work, my family left Friday and G and I drove down on Saturday. On my two hour drive to pick him up I remember thinking “What the heck am I thinking?” G and I had not seen each other in over four years. What if we can’t stand each other?
When I arrived at his apartment things were a little awkward, however during the eight hour drive to the beach we talked as if we had been friends forever. Thankfully there were no awkward silences! He took my poor navigational skills in stride and when we finally arrived at the beach house he welcomed my mother with a big hug. He fit right in with my family.
After our eight hour drive home a few days later where we laughed and talked the whole way, I knew I wanted to spend more time around G.
We started meeting up on weekends here and there, which lead to dating, which lead to almost every weekend together. I never realized what the military meant for our relationship. Since we were together on weekends, I rarely saw him in uniform, so it never really sunk in.
Things changed one weekend when I was visiting and his flight went to 12 hour shifts. He was gone from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. I considered going home but decided I wanted to stay. I realized seeing him for just a few hours was better than not seeing him at all. I think this is when I started understanding what dating someone in the military meant. It definitely would mean a lot of waiting.
After a few months of dating G got deployment orders, and we talked a lot about what that meant. We decided to stay together and give it a try because deployments are going to be a part of his life, and if I was going to be part of his life, deployments would be part of my life too.
That first deployment was hard. We rarely talked, emailed once a week, and never wrote. When it was time for him to come home, I went down to his apartment, cleaned all the dust off everything, and went grocery shopping. I wanted to make sure there was a home-cooked meal and a cold beer waiting for him.
When I was sitting in the base terminal for five hours just waiting for his plane to arrive I had a mix of emotions. I was excited to see him, but I was also terrified. What if everything had changed? What if we weren’t a good fit anymore? The longer I sat the more and more worried I became.
Suddenly one of his coworkers who was waiting with me informed me that his plane had landed. I had the biggest butterflies! As I stood waiting to see him walk though those doors I searched for his face among all the other men and women.
Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, there was a familiar voice behind me. All he said was “Hi baby!”
I swear it was that second, when we locked eyes, that I knew he was the one.
                                 133716_10100584206946484_3041803_o
We spent the next two weeks together and actually used one of those weeks to vacation together in Mexico. While on vacation we talked a lot about what the military lifestyle really meant, and that if we were going to be together there would be sacrifices I would need to make. I really knew nothing about being with someone in the military and felt as if I was learning day by day. The first couple of times I was on base with him I felt lost and confused. He had to explain everything to me!
Those two weeks together after the deployment were the longest amount of time we had been together up until that point. It was during this time that I realized deployments and sacrifices were worth it. G was worth the wait.
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Once we were home G got orders to PCS (move), and he asked if I would go with him. I jumped right in, left my job, my friends, and my family to move with G, who was still my boyfriend at the time. Some people thought I was crazy, but others saw it as romantic. I saw it as both.
About six months after moving G proposed in my hometown when we were out to breakfast with my extended family. He knew it took a lot for me to move away from my entire family, and he wanted the whole family to have that memory.
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Nine months later we were married, and since then G deployed for a second time. I went with him to schooling for two months where we lived in a hotel room with our two dogs.
We PCSed again and I gave birth to our first child.
I feel like our life has been a whirlwind. I knew nothing about being part of a military family before G, and now I know being part of military family is a lot of jumping in with both feet. It’s all about trust and taking everything one day at a time. I trust that he is there for me even when he can’t physically be there for me. I know we will face challenges and the only way to handle them is with a positive attitude and smile. We joke that a military life means a life of firsts. Every day is a new adventure and I couldn’t imagine going on this adventure with anyone else. My life is forever changed all because of that one text message; I wouldn’t have it any other way!
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If you want to learn more about my family and my adventures you can come visit me at An Aiming High Wife!
To read more military love stories or to submit your own military love story for possible publication, click here.

Erica
Erica

Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo

July 23, 2015

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Meet Erica

Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you!

I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos.

I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 5, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!)

I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo

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