For My Husband!!

Jim-

Today is Veteran's Day and even though you are no longer in the service I wanted to make sure you know how proud and grateful I am to have you as my husband!! I know we have had many struggles a long the way and after 10 years of being together we are stronger than we have ever been. 

As a recap of our lives in the military I wanted to show that it wasn't always all bad.

I remember when I first met you at Prairie Farm June of 1998. I thought you were so cute (of course I was 16 then and very hormonal) :) I knew you were int he military and I thought that was really cool. Not to mention a man in uniform....WooHoo!!

From that point on for a few years we stayed good friends and saw each other occasionally. I remember going over to the ROTC house and watching movies with you and drinking Honey Brown Beer (the only beer I would ever drink-and you introduced me to it). I remember going to a few parties with you, and just hanging out!!

Well we had lost contact for a little over a year and our reuniting wasn't the best of circumstances. Your cousin had passed away and I knew him from school and when I went to his visitation I had no idea you two were related. We talked and caught up and decided we needed to hang out again. So with great tragedy came a great love. 

We hung out that summer and at one point had talked about possibly dating but we both had just came out of a bad relationship and we knew it wasn't the right time. At least not for it to be a relationship that would work out. That Halloween (2001) we decided to go to a party, but I ended up just wanting to go home because I was tired and didn't know anyone and felt a little out of place. At that time we decided to try to "go out" with each other. Of course with that said we still didn't really act like girl friend and boy friend.... :) 

It wasn't until New Year's Eve that  you started staying over at my place more and it felt a little more like a relationship, however it still wasn't the fireworks going off type of relationship at that point. We still did our own thing but enjoyed each others company a lot.

I knew that coming Feb you were to be deployed to Germany after 9-11 had happened. I knew you would be gone for about 7 months but thought eh "if it works out, it works out". It wasn't until that last weekend at the Ramada Inn hotel in Bloomington that I knew my life would never be the same.

The weekend was a lot of getting stuff ready to leave. It was busy and we didn't get a whole lot of time to spend together since you were having to run around so much with meetings and so forth. That last night I remember vividly and it was a wonderful one. It wasn't until the next morning at 6 am with just a peak of light coming in the window that I realized you were the one!! I remember looking over at you and rubbing your arm and thinking how mad I was that I had fallen completely head over heels for you. I mean I had gotten out of a bad relationship just 10 months before and didn't want to "fall in love" again, but it wasn't up to me, I was....I was madly in love with you and knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you!!

That morning was very difficult. Here I had just given in to the fact that I loved you so much and now you were leaving me for 7 months. I was devastated. 

Once you got over there we talked as much as possible. I will never forget one of the best day's of my life. I was in Florida with my mom visiting my grandfather and you had called one evening. I would have never thought in a million years that phone call would be a huge change in my life. It was the evening in Florida and about 3 am in Germany that you asked me to marry you. We were both in shock I think. I received my ring via Fed Ex (I love it cause it's our own special story). Then it was a waiting game and planning for a wedding that would be that next June.

I remember when you came home (Sept 2002). I loved seeing you get off that bus. I couldn't keep my eyes off of you. I had missed you SO much!! It was wonderful to have you home and to show you all the things we had gotten done for the wedding. We had decided to move into a little one bedroom farm house on two acres in St. Joe. Those were some of the best months of our lives. I had my horse, you had your gun range. It was wonderful. We had bonfire's, and cold winter days cuddled in bed looking out the skylight!! Things couldn't get better.

We moved back into Champaign that Spring because you were going to go back to school and we only had one car so we needed to be close for the buses. We lived at Ashton Woods and that would be where we would go home as husband and wife and where we would conceive our first child Jackson. Once we found out we were pregnant apartment life wasn't going to cut it. We needed more room and not so many neighbors. :) So it was time to look for a new place.

We ended back at Deerfield Woods (where I lived right before you left for Germany). It was a great little subdivision with duplexes in it. It was in the middle of no where off High Cross Road and Rt. 130 in Urbana. I loved it out there. That would be the place we would bring Jackson's home. However it wasn't going to be big enough for our growing family (two bedrooms) so when Jack was about 10 months old we decided to start looking to buy our first home. We found a few in Champaign, but I really wanted to be in Monticello.

We found a few houses in Monticello, but most of them were to small, or needed way to much work. Then we found this great little 3 bedroom, 1 bath, finished garage home with a huge yard. It was perfect. We moved in April 15th 2005 just before Jack's First Birthday. Little did we know that just the month before we had conceived Alexander during all the house hunting and packing. :) 

Here we would make our family. However you were in OBC (Military training school to become a Lt.) and we found out that you would have to leave for 5 months to Aberdeen Maryland. Well we didn't want to have to leave our families and doctors (3 months pregnant at this point) so we stayed here and you went to Maryland for 5 months. It was very hard to see you leave just after we bought a new house and my being pregnant, but it was what had to happen.

So from June 1st 2005 (right before our 2nd anniversary)-Oct 28th 2005 you were gone and I held down the fort. It was hard not having you home being pregnant, with a new house and a 13 month old, but we managed. We went and visited you in Sept (over Labor day weekend) and it was wonderful. Jack did great on his first plane ride, and we saw the sights of Baltimore. It was a great vacation and visit, but sadly we had to come back and wait about two more months to have you home with us.

You came home right before Halloween and it was wonderful to have to home!! We flew through Thanksgiving and then Dec. 8th Alexander was born. He was born during the only blizzard of that winter. Went in Sunny, and got to my postpartum room and it was a blizzard outside.Should have warned us :)

The years went by as they do and we had you here sometimes and gone others. You worked in the Military up in Marseilles IL (two hours away) so you would only be home a few nights a week. It was very difficult on us all, but once again we made it through it.

In 2008 we thought you would have to be deployed to Afghanistan and I knew that if you went over, you would not have come back. I don't know why I felt that way, but it was in God's cards to keep you here with us and I am thankful he did. You got out shortly after that because 14 years of ups and downs was enough. You wanted to live a "normal" life and be able to see your children grow up.

We have had our own challenges along the way but they only made us stronger. I know this may seem silly to put this all on a blog, but I wanted you to see some and I mean only some of the paths we have gone down together. 

I love you James Patrick Mortland and I look forward to all the paths our lives together will lead us down. With the pending birth of our third little boy, I see new adventures on the horizon and I could not have asked for a better partner in life to share them with.

I love you Babe!!

Lizzy